# DeepSeek — models, pricing & selection | Y-API

> DeepSeek’s V4 family on Y-API spans four text-first entries: a free V4 Flash preview, the official 0731 Flash release, V4.1 Flash with native image input, and the larger V4 Pro — all with a million-token window and a sparse mixture-of-experts design.

This is the markdown representation of https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/deepseek. Generated by `scripts/generate-seo-assets.mjs` from the same copy the page renders — do not edit by hand.

Vendor scope: 4 reviewed models.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-04. Y-API catalog snapshot: 2026-10-04.

## About this vendor

Vendor-level selection advice by Y-API. The per-model pages linked below carry the model-specific checks; nothing here is a measured comparison.

### Where this vendor fits

DeepSeek is the price floor of this catalog: three of its four entries cost under $0.25 per million input tokens, and the free Flash preview makes it the default first call when validating a Y-API integration before spending credit.

### What to watch for

The dated IDs (0423, 0731) are catalog entries, not a subscription to the newest checkpoint, so saved evaluations stay tied to the exact ID. Free status is also upstream’s choice and can be withdrawn — production assumptions must not rest on a $0 price.

## Models on Y-API

Prices are account-credit snapshots from the Y-API catalog. Each model links to its own guide with a cost estimator and a request example.

| Model | Context window | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash) | 1,048,576 | Free — no credit deducted | Free — no credit deducted |
| [DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro) | 1,048,576 | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| [DeepSeek V4.1 Flash](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash) | 1,048,576 | $0.20 | $1.00 |
| [DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-0731) | 1,048,576 | $0.15 | $0.30 |

$1 paid adds $10 of credit; the cash equivalent is credit consumed ÷ 10. These are Y-API prices, not the publisher’s list prices.

## Choosing within the lineup

Start on V4 Flash 0731, the maintained Flash revision. Move to V4.1 Flash only when the task needs image input, and reserve V4 Pro for workloads where the cheaper entries demonstrably miss. Keep the free 0423 preview for smoke tests rather than reusable baselines.

## Before you choose

### Which DeepSeek model should a new integration start with?

V4 Flash 0731: it is the publisher’s official Flash release and among the cheapest paid entries in the catalog. Validate the integration there, then add image input through V4.1 Flash or move to V4 Pro only where the task shows a gap.

## Sources & scope

Vendor scope on this site is exactly the reviewed model guides listed above; a vendor page exists only while at least one of its models is reviewed. Claims about architecture or positioning follow the cited pages. We do not publish measured latency, uptime or benchmark scores for any vendor.

- [OpenRouter vendor page](https://openrouter.ai/deepseek)
- [Publisher organization on Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai)
- [Y-API catalog & prices (JSON)](https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models.json)

## Links

- HTML version of this page: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models/deepseek
- Site index for agents: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/llms.txt
- Full reference (single file): https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/llms-full.txt
- OpenAPI 3.1 spec: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/openapi.json
- Model catalog (JSON, no key needed): https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models.json
- API base URL: `https://api.y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/v1`
- Contact: support@bestvirtualgoods.com
- Model catalog: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/models
- Integration guide: https://y-api.bestvirtualgoods.com/docs