Standard Compute
Model comparison 2026

DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

DeepSeek R1 (0528)
DeepSeek · Balanced · Open weights
$0.99/1M · 164K ctx
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · Budget · Open weights
$0.22/1M · 1.0M ctx

Community vote

Pick a winner in each dimension. You can change your vote any time.

Output Quality
Correctness and depth of what it produces
Agentic Ability
Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks
Speed
Tokens per second and time-to-first-token
Value for money
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results: fewer refusals, loops and format breaks

Specs and pricing side by side

Spec
DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Maker
DeepSeek
DeepSeek
Blended price / 1M
$0.99
$0.22
Input / output
$0.50 in · $2.15 out / 1M tokens
$0.04 in · $0.63 out / 1M tokens
Context window
164K
1.0M
Open weights
Yes
Yes
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
Yes
Output Quality
7.5
8.8
Agentic Ability
7.0
8.8
Speed
6.8
9.4
Value for money
8.6
10.0
Reliability
8.6
8.8

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: DeepSeek R1 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?

Updated 2026-10-13

Choose DeepSeek R1 (0528) if you want reasoning-heavy planning where cost matters. Choose DeepSeek V4.1 Flash if you want cheap, high-volume open-weight agent work.

In our editorial scoring, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads in 5 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability, speed, value for money and reliability), while DeepSeek R1 (0528) leads in 0. On price, DeepSeek R1 (0528) runs about $0.99 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is about $0.22 and open-weight.

Where DeepSeek R1 falls short
  • Slow due to long reasoning
  • Weaker at fast tool loops
Full DeepSeek R1 breakdown →
Where DeepSeek V4.1 Flash falls short
  • Well below the frontier on long agentic tasks
  • DeepSeek API prices differ between peak and off-peak hours
Full DeepSeek V4.1 Flash breakdown →

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