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DeepSeek V4.1 Flash API

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash gives agent builders image input, tool calls and a long context in one model, from $0.135 per million input tokens.

Get API keyRead the docs
  • 1M token context
  • 13B active parameters
  • Native image input
  • MIT licensed weights
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.modelsheep.com",
    api_key=API_KEY_MODELSHEEP,
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash",
    messages=[
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": "Why do sheep count people?"
        }
    ],
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

How to use the DeepSeek V4.1 Flash API

  1. 1

    Create a ModelSheep account and copy an API key from the dashboard.

  2. 2

    Point the OpenAI SDK at the base url https://api.modelsheep.com and pass deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash as the model string.

  3. 3

    Send your messages to /chat/completions with reasoning_effort set as an integer, then read the reply from choices[0].message.content.

What DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a mixture-of-experts model that reads images and text and generates text. DeepSeek released it in September 2026 as the smallest model in a new causal encoder-decoder family, built for faster inference and higher throughput. It holds 763.2B parameters and activates only 13B of them per token. It replaces V4 Flash and V4 Flash Vision Exp, which DeepSeek retired on the same day, and it scores 39.5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

What it does well

  • Drives a coding agent from an issue to a patch, and calls tools in a loop.
  • Takes an image and a question in one prompt and answers in text.
  • Holds a whole repository or a long contract in one prompt, up to 1M tokens.

What it is not for

  • It returns text only. It does not generate images or audio.
  • It writes long answers. Artificial Analysis measured its output volume well above the median of the models it tested, so output cost and run time climb on agent loops.

Calling it

Call it on POST /chat/completions with the model string deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash. Thinking stays on at middle effort when you send no setting, so pass reasoning_effort as an integer from 1 to 100. The names low, high and max map to different numbers on DeepSeek's own API than on the open weights, and thinking mode ignores temperature, presence_penalty and frequency_penalty.

deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash /chat/completions

SDKs and languages

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash answers on an HTTP endpoint, so any language that can post JSON reaches it. These are the ones the box above writes out.

OpenAI SDK
PythonTypeScriptGoJavaC#PHPRust
Anthropic SDK
PythonTypeScriptGoJavaC#PHPRust
HTTP
cURLPythonTypeScriptGoRustJavaC#PHP

Specifications

AuthorDeepSeek
Categorylanguage
Acceptstext, image
Returnstext
Total parameters763.2B
Active parameters13B
Score39.5 on Artificial Analysis intelligence index
Languagesnot published
Precision servedFP8
Context1M tokens
Vectorn/a
LicenseMIT

Price

Input

$0.135

per million tokens

Output

$0.540

per million tokens

Against OpenRouter

10%

below the cheapest of 19 providers

The cheapest OpenRouter price for this model was $0.150 in and $0.600 out, with a median of $0.300 and $1.200 across the comparable providers. Read on 2026-09-17.

License

DeepSeek publishes the weights and the repository under the MIT license. It permits commercial use, modification and redistribution, and it adds no extra vendor terms to read before you ship.

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Start using DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Point the OpenAI SDK at api.modelsheep.com. Your prompts stay in Germany, and nothing is retained.

Get API keyRead the quickstart