Qwen3.8 Flash vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Chinese budget APIs, with Qwen's list price about half of DeepSeek's peak rate. Both list prices from the makers’ own pages, and what three everyday jobs cost on each.
US dollars, standard rate, shortest context band. Price only: this page does not rank quality.
- Qwen3.8 Flash
- $0.64
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- $1.38
- Qwen3.8 Flash, per M tokens
- $0.15 / $0.47
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, per M tokens
- $0.30 / $1.20
3,000 tokens in and 400 out each, at list price.
Per million tokens, Qwen3.8 Flash costs $0.15 in and $0.47 out; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 in and $1.20 out. 1,000 support replies cost $1.38 on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and $0.64 on Qwen3.8 Flash, so DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs 2.2 times as much. Both read up to 1M tokens at once.
Side by side
Each maker’s published rate for its standard tier. Cached input is what a repeated prompt prefix costs once the provider has stored it.
| Fact | Qwen3.8 Flash | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Alibaba (Qwen) | DeepSeek |
| Tier | Small and fast | Small and fast |
| Input, per M tokens | $0.15 | $0.30 |
| Output, per M tokens | $0.47 | $1.20 |
| Cached input | Not published | $0.006 |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Released | Not published | 10 Sep 2026 |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
What a job costs on each
1,000 runs of each job at the two list prices. The gap moves from job to job because the models price input, output and cached context differently.
| Job | Qwen3.8 Flash | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support reply3,000 in, 400 out. | $0.64 | $1.38 | Qwen3.8 Flash, 54% less |
| Document summary25,000 in, 1,000 out. | $4.22 | $8.70 | Qwen3.8 Flash, 51% less |
| Agent task80,000 in (70,000 cached), 3,000 out. | $13.41 | $7.02 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, 48% less |
The token counts are ours, chosen to look like real work; the prices are the makers’. A model with no published cache price bills the agent task’s repeated context at its full input rate.
The small print
What each base rate leaves out, from the makers’ own pages: surcharges, discounts, promotions and cache pricing.
- Qwen3.8 Flash
- International deployment, one tier up to 1M input tokens. Cache discounts as for Qwen3.8 Max. Context taken from the top pricing tier (1M). Alibaba (Qwen)’s pricing page
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Peak-hour rate, recorded as the list price. Off-peak is half: $0.15 / $0.60, cache hit $0.003. API name deepseek-flash. Max output 384K. DeepSeek’s pricing page
Other comparisons
Every head to head on the list that involves Qwen3.8 Flash or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
Run DeepSeek V4.1 Flash for a quarter of list price
AIGROW API credit covers DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and is metered at the list prices above: $25 buys $100 of usage.
Prices checked 22 September 2026