DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Opus 5: wins 4 of 11 benchmarks at 95% lower price
The open-weight Flash model wins 4 of 11 benchmarks and lands within 2 points on 3 more; 1M input + 1M output tokens costs $1.50 versus $30 on Opus 5, with decode at 175 tok/s at worst.
I would argue Deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 is better value than Opus 5. Took 3 months for a non pro, open weight, flash model to get this close to Opus 5 on several benchmarks is a compliment for deepseek. Flash wins 4 of the 11 reported benchmarks and comes within 2 points on 3 more. Opus still has clear strengths, but Flash is getting seriously competitive. At peak API rates, 1M uncached input + 1M output tokens costs $1.50 on Flash versus $30 on Opus 5. That’s 95% less. Add Flash’s fast generation, and that’s an absolute win for value. 175 tok/s decode is the slowest btw, you'll get more than 200 most of times. How close it gets, how fast it runs, and how little it costs all matter.
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