// alternatives · October 2026
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash alternatives
Cheaper models that come close, budget substitutes, and the cheapest step up — chosen on published LiveBench scores and live list price, never on our opinion. Every model here supports tool calling and image input, as DeepSeek V4.1 Flash does.
LiveBench hasn't published a run for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. The strongest benchmarked model at a similar or lower price is Claude Haiku 5.5, scoring 69.8 overall.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: no published LiveBench run, $0.210 per 1M blended tokens, about $82.88/mo for a RAG assistant.
Benchmarked models at or below its price
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has no published LiveBench run, so these are the highest-scoring benchmarked models priced no more than 25% above it — a known quantity to test against.
| Model | Overall | vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Blended / 1M | RAG assistant | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 5.5anthropic 5% cheaper. Head to head → | 69.8 | — | $0.200−5% | $74.00/mo | 1M |
| MiniMax M3.1 Flashminimax 25% more expensive. Head to head → | 66.9 | — | $0.262 | $102.00/mo | 1.0M |
| GPT-6 Lunaopenai 5% cheaper. Head to head → | 64.6 | — | $0.200−5% | $74.00/mo | 1.1M |
| GLM 5.3 Flashz-ai 75% cheaper. Head to head → | 62.1 | — | $0.053−75% | $34.59/mo | 1.0M |
| Nemotron 3.5 Super VLnvidia 13% more expensive. Head to head → | 50.2 | — | $0.237 | $98.00/mo | 1.0M |
| Gemma 4 31Bgoogle 19% more expensive. Head to head → | 38.7 | — | $0.250 | $184.00/mo | 262K |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash alternatives FAQ
What is the best alternative to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
Claude Haiku 5.5. 5% cheaper. Every suggestion supports tool calling and image input, like DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
How alternatives are chosen
- Scores — LiveBench release 2026-10-25. Only models with a published run are suggested on quality; a missing model means “not evaluated”, not “worse”.
- Prices — live list prices from OpenRouter, blended 3:1 input:output. Monthly figures price a RAG assistant with the published cached-input rate where there is one.
- Same job — suggestions must support every capability DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has among tool calling and image input. Other listings of the same model (free or batch tiers) are variants, not alternatives, and are left out.
A few points on a public benchmark can hide large differences on your own tasks. Shortlist here, then decide with an eval — how to build one.