DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: a fast, open, multimodal MoE model with 1M context, vision, and agentic capabilities — now the default Flash-tier model on DeepSeek.
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Build without permission." }]
}'Overview
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a high-efficiency multimodal Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model with 552B parameters and 1M token context. It supports vision, function calling, web search, and code generation, delivering strong agentic performance at low cost. Released on September 10, 2026, it replaces earlier Flash variants and even supersedes V4-Pro in many benchmarks.
On Venice, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash runs with zero retention — your prompts are never stored or profiled. This open, uncensored model gives you full sovereignty over inputs, ideal for sensitive coding, research, or enterprise workflows. Run the same high-performance model used in agent frameworks, but privately and permissionlessly.
Agent quickstart
The API is OpenAI-compatible: change the base URL and the model id and existing client code works unchanged.
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash",
"stream": true,
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Draft the release note." }]
}'curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Find the rate limits." }],
"tools": [{
"type": "function",
"function": {
"name": "search_docs",
"description": "Search the API documentation.",
"parameters": {
"type": "object",
"properties": { "query": { "type": "string" } },
"required": ["query"]
}
}
}],
"tool_choice": "auto"
}'import os
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key=os.environ["VENICE_API_KEY"],
base_url="https://api.venice.ai/api/v1",
)
resp = client.chat.completions.create(
model="deepseek-v4-1-flash",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Build without permission."}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)Specifications
Assessment
Use cases
Prompting
Use thinking mode for complex reasoning; disable it for low-latency throughput.
Include image URLs or base64 data directly in the prompt for vision tasks.
Leverage function calling with precise JSON schema definitions for tool integration.
Use web search capability to ground responses in current data.
Structure prompts with clear step-by-step logic to maximize reasoning performance.
For cost savings, reuse cached contexts in agent loops with repeated system prompts.
Alternatives
| Model | Best for | Context | Open weights | Price (Venice) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Agentic workloads, vision, code | 1M tokens | Yes | $0.38 in · $1.50 out / 1M |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Creative long-form writing | 1M tokens | No | $12 in · $60 out / 1M |
| Google Gemma 4 31B Instruct | Lightweight open inference | 256K tokens | Yes | $0.12 in · $0.36 out / 1M |
| Qwen 3.7 Plus | Balanced open alternative | 1M tokens | No | $0.50 in · $2 out / 1M |
Choose DeepSeek V4.1 Flash when you need open, private, vision-capable agentic reasoning at scale. It outperforms pricier closed models and offers unmatched efficiency for input-heavy workflows.
Pricing
Billed per token on Venice: $0.38 per 1M input tokens and $1.50 per 1M output tokens.
New Venice accounts include a free daily allowance and 500 welcome credits — no credit card required.
Getting a key
Create a key in API settings. Nothing else is required to start.
Export it as VENICE_API_KEY so the snippets above run unedited.
Point an existing OpenAI client at https://api.venice.ai/api/v1. The scheme is part of the value: an OpenAI client given a bare host does not resolve it.
Pass deepseek-v4-1-flash as the model and send the request.
FAQ
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a multimodal Mixture-of-Experts language model with 552B parameters and 1M token context, released on September 10, 2026. It supports vision, tool use, web search, and code generation, and is now the default model for the Flash tier on DeepSeek’s API.
On Venice, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.38 per 1M input tokens and $1.50 per 1M output tokens. Cached input is just $0.01 per 1M tokens, making it highly efficient for agent loops and repeated prompts.
It is not free, but it is open weights under the Apache 2.0 license. You can view, use, and modify the model weights, though content policies still apply. It is not fully uncensored.
Yes, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has native multimodal vision support and can process image inputs directly in prompts. It performs well on vision-augmented tasks like BabyVision and Chartography.
Yes, it supports full function calling and tool use, making it ideal for AI agents. It also supports structured JSON output, web search, and reasoning mode for complex workflows.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is more cost-effective, open-weight, and better for agentic and coding tasks. Claude Opus 5 may have stronger general reasoning in some domains, but it’s closed, far more expensive, and lacks vision in the base model.
It supports up to 1,000,000 tokens of context, making it ideal for processing extremely long documents, codebases, or multi-step agent workflows with full memory retention.
One key, free to start, no credit card.