Choose DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash if…
- you generate long outputs in one go — up to 944K tokens (about 707,800 words) per response
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash
Neither wins outright: DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the pick when you generate long outputs in one go, Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash when cost matters at scale.
Key numbers
| Spec | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Qwen |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $0.30 | $0.15 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $1.20 | $0.47 |
| Blended price (3:1 input/output) | $0.52 | $0.23 |
| Cheaper than … of all models we track | 52% | 68% |
| Context window | 1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages) | 1M tokens (~1,500 pages) |
| Larger context than … of all models | 81% | 70% |
| Max output per response | 944K tokens (~707,800 words) | 131K tokens (~98,300 words) |
| Input types | text, image | text, image, video |
| Output types | text | text |
| Free variant | No | No |
| Listed since | 2026-09-10 | 2026-08-26 |
What it costs for real workloads
Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.
| Workload (per month) | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens) | $46.50 | $20.65 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $25.85 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens) | $48.00 | $22.70 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $25.30 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens) | $50.40 | $23.64 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $26.76 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens) | $31.20 | $14.82 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $16.38 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens) | $16.20 | $7.97 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash saves $8.23 |
Capabilities side by side
| Capability | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash | What it lets you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool / function calling | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | call your APIs and run agent loops |
| Structured output (JSON schema) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | return JSON that validates against your schema |
| Reasoning / thinking mode | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems |
| Image input | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | read screenshots, charts and scanned pages |
| Audio input | — | — | take speech or audio directly |
| File / PDF input | — | — | accept documents without your own parsing step |
| Image output | — | — | generate images, not just text |
| Built-in web search | — | — | answer from live web results |
| Seed (reproducible sampling) | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | repeat a generation for tests and evals |
| Log-probabilities | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | read token confidence for classification and scoring |
From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.
Price history
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: input price raised 99% ($0.0030 → $0.30/1M), output price cut 50% ($2.40 → $1.20/1M) on 2026-10-06 (16 price changes since 2026-09-11).
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: input price cut 6% ($0.16 → $0.15/1M) on 2026-08-28.
| Date | Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-06 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.30 | $1.20 |
| 2026-10-04 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.0030 | $2.40 |
| 2026-10-03 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.30 | $1.20 |
| 2026-10-02 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.02 | $0.75 |
| 2026-10-01 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.02 | $0.40 |
| 2026-09-29 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.30 | $1.20 |
| 2026-09-28 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.03 | $0.60 |
| 2026-09-27 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.04 | $0.29 |
Which should you choose?
Choose Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash if…
- cost matters at scale — it is 56% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($20.65 vs $46.50 a month for 50,000 support chats)
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash better than Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
Neither wins outright: DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the pick when you generate long outputs in one go, Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash when cost matters at scale. In short: DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash when you generate long outputs in one go; Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash when cost matters at scale.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash is cheaper: $0.23 vs $0.52 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 56% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $20.65 against $46.50.
How much do DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash cost per million tokens?
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens; Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash costs $0.15 input and $0.47 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash.
Do DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash support function calling and JSON output?
Tool calling — DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: yes, Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: yes. JSON-schema structured output — DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: yes, Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: yes.
Can DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash read images?
Yes, both accept image input.
Is DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash free to use?
No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.
What is the maximum output length of DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash?
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash can write up to 944K tokens (about 707,800 words) per response; Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash up to 131K (about 98,300 words).
When were DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash released?
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was listed on 2026-09-10; Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash on 2026-08-26.
Has the price of DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash changed?
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: input price raised 99% ($0.0030 → $0.30/1M), output price cut 50% ($2.40 → $1.20/1M) on 2026-10-06 (16 price changes since 2026-09-11). Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash: input price cut 6% ($0.16 → $0.15/1M) on 2026-08-28.
About the two models
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a sparse mixture-of-experts model from DeepSeek, and the first built on the company's Causal Encoder-Decoder (CED) architecture. It activates 8B parameters on input and 16B on...
Full DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash specs →Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash
Qwen3.8 Flash is a multimodal reasoning model from Alibaba. It is suited for coding assistance, agentic workflows, visual understanding, document and codebase analysis, desktop interaction, chart analysis, and long-video analysis.
Full Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash specs →