Model comparison - Similar price, same tier

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3.8-Flash

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is from DeepSeek and Qwen3.8-Flash is from Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). On list price, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash charges 2x Qwen3.8-Flash's input price ($0.30 vs $0.15 per 1M tokens), and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash charges 2.6x Qwen3.8-Flash's output price ($1.20 vs $0.47 per 1M tokens). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash both have a 1,000,000-token context window; max output is 393,216 and 131,072 tokens per response. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was released on September 10, 2026 and Qwen3.8-Flash on August 26, 2026. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash publishes open weights (MIT); Qwen3.8-Flash is closed-weights.

Last verified October 17, 2026 from each provider's pricing page. All sources

DeepSeek - Open

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Input / 1M: $0.30
Output / 1M: $1.20
Context: 1M

Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) - Closed

Qwen3.8-Flash

Input / 1M: $0.15
Output / 1M: $0.47
Context: 1M

Side-by-side specs

Spec	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8-Flash
Provider	DeepSeek	Alibaba Cloud (Qwen)
Input / 1M tokens	$0.30	$0.15
Output / 1M tokens	$1.20	$0.47
Cache read / 1M	$0.006	$0.016
Cache write / 1M	-	$0.20
Context window	1,000,000	1,000,000
Max output	393,216	131,072
Release date	September 10, 2026	August 26, 2026
Weights	Open	Closed
License	MIT	-
API model id	`deepseek-flash`	`qwen3.8-flash`
AI Gateway id	`deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017`	`alibaba/qwen3.8-flash`
Last verified	October 17, 2026	October 17, 2026

Prices in USD per 1M tokens at each provider's standard first-party rate. A dash means the provider does not bill that item separately or no primary page states it.

What each costs in practice

The same three workloads every model page uses, worked from each model's standard list rates. Swap in your own token counts with the math on each model's page.

Workload	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8-Flash
One agent session1M input tokens and 100K output tokens, no caching.	$0.42	$0.197
A chat app10,000 requests a day at 2K input and 500 output tokens each.	$12.00$360.00 per 30-day month	$5.35$160.50 per 30-day month
The same session at a 90% cache hit90% of the input is read from the prompt cache. The one-time cache write premium is not included.	$0.1554	$0.0764

Show the math

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

One agent sessionInput: 1M x $0.30 = $0.30Output: 0.1M x $1.20 = $0.12
A chat appInput: 20M x $0.30 = $6.00Output: 5M x $1.20 = $6.00
The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.006 = $0.0054Uncached input: 0.1M x $0.30 = $0.03Output: 0.1M x $1.20 = $0.12

Qwen3.8-Flash

One agent sessionInput: 1M x $0.15 = $0.15Output: 0.1M x $0.47 = $0.047
A chat appInput: 20M x $0.15 = $3.00Output: 5M x $0.47 = $2.35
The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.016 = $0.0144Uncached input: 0.1M x $0.15 = $0.015Output: 0.1M x $0.47 = $0.047

Benchmarks under the same setting

No board in the benchmark directory lists both DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash under the same setting, so there is no like-for-like score to show here.

Set them up in your tools

Step-by-step guides whose official docs list DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen3.8-Flash by model id.

Model pages

DeepSeekDeepSeek V4.1 Flash pricing and specsFull rate card, worked cost examples and sources. Open weights.Alibaba Cloud (Qwen)Qwen3.8-Flash pricing and specsFull rate card, worked cost examples and sources. Closed weights.

FAQ

How do DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash compare on price?

On list price, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash charges 2x Qwen3.8-Flash's input price ($0.30 vs $0.15 per 1M tokens), and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash charges 2.6x Qwen3.8-Flash's output price ($1.20 vs $0.47 per 1M tokens). For one agent session of 1M input and 100K output tokens with no caching, that is $0.42 on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and $0.197 on Qwen3.8-Flash. Prices are each provider's first-party list rates, verified October 17, 2026 and October 17, 2026.

What are the context windows of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash both have a 1,000,000-token context window; max output is 393,216 and 131,072 tokens per response.

Are DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8-Flash open weights?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's weights are published at huggingface.co under the MIT. Qwen3.8-Flash is closed-weights and is called through Alibaba Cloud (Qwen)'s API as qwen3.8-flash.

More comparisons

Sources

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash verified October 17, 2026 from api-docs.deepseek.com; Qwen3.8-Flash verified October 17, 2026 from alibabacloud.com. This page is as current as the older of the two: October 17, 2026.

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