DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Leak: 81.2 Quality at $0.028 per Artifact

Two numbers leaked this week are worth more than the announcement around them: 81.2 quality, and $0.028. That is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, reportedly landing tomorrow, and the cost per artifact is where it separates from everything above it.

The details come from LuminaBench and a leaked OpenDesign benchmark, so treat them as a leak until DeepSeek says otherwise.

What Happened

According to LuminaBench, DeepSeek is preparing to officially release DeepSeek V4.1 Flash tomorrow. Until the upcoming V4.1 Pro is unveiled, existing V4 Pro traffic is reportedly being redirected straight to V4.1 Flash.

A leaked quality-vs-cost benchmark from OpenDesign puts the numbers like this:

• DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 81.2 Quality Score, about $0.028 per artifact.
• Claude Fable 5.1: 80.3 Quality Score, with Claude reported at $3.66 per artifact.
• GPT-6 Astra: 82.7 Quality Score, still sitting in dollars per artifact.

By that comparison, V4.1 Flash lands near the bottom on cost while closing on the top on quality, at nearly 100x cheaper for comparable output. DeepSeek is said to be confident enough in the benchmark leap to swap live V4 Pro traffic onto the new model. V4.1 Pro is expected right behind it, starting a September release wave.

Why It Matters

If the routing holds, current V4 Pro users get the new model without changing anything on their end, and the price gap is the part closed-model vendors will feel. Leaked benchmarks are still unverified, so the quality and cost figures may move once the official release lands. Watch for the actual pricing page before you plan a migration around it.