AI model comparison

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Claude Fable 5.1

Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a sparse mixture-of-experts model from DeepSeek, and the first built on the company's Causal Encoder-Decoder (CED) architecture.

Input / 1M
$0.30
Output / 1M
$1.20
Context
1.05M

Claude Fable 5.1 improves on Claude Fable 5 across the board, with the biggest gains in agentic coding, long-running agentic workflows, and knowledge work: long code refactors, front-end and visual

Input / 1M
$10
Output / 1M
$50
Context
1M

At a glance

Quick verdict

How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.

Lower price

deepseek logo

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

37.5x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

anthropic logo

Claude Fable 5.1

53.4 vs 39.5 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

deepseek logo

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

1.05M vs 1M tokens

Newer release

deepseek logo

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Released September 10, 2026

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores

Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.

Intelligence index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash39.5
anthropic logoClaude Fable 5.153.4

Coding index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 FlashNot available
anthropic logoClaude Fable 5.181.6

Agentic index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 FlashNot available
anthropic logoClaude Fable 5.157.9

Pricing

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Claude Fable 5.1 API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashanthropic logoClaude Fable 5.1
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.30$10
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$1.20$50
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens$0.01$0.25
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot available$12.50
Web searchPer requestNot available$0.01

What it costs in practice

Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.

Chat message

2K in, 500 out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$1.20
anthropic logoClaude Fable 5.1$45

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$13.80$4.98 cached
anthropic logoClaude Fable 5.1$500$207.50 cached

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$47.40$3.30 cached
anthropic logoClaude Fable 5.1$1600$137.50 cached

Specs

Context window and capabilities

How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashanthropic logoClaude Fable 5.1
Context window1.05M tokens1M tokens
Max output944K tokens128K tokens
Input typesImage, TextFile, Image, Text
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsMax, High, LowMax, Extra high, High, Medium, Low
Default reasoning effortHighHigh
Release dateSeptember 10, 2026September 1, 2026

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashanthropic logoClaude Fable 5.1
Tool callingSupportedSupported
Structured outputsSupportedSupported
JSON modeSupportedSupported
ReasoningSupportedSupported
TemperatureSupportedNot supported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedNot supported
Verbosity controlNot supportedSupported

Our take

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 37.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Claude Fable 5.1 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (53.4 vs 39.5). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has the larger context window (1.05M vs 1M tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Claude Fable 5.1 cheaper?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens, while Claude Fable 5.1 costs $10 per 1M input tokens and $50 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Claude Fable 5.1?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1M for Claude Fable 5.1.

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash smarter than Claude Fable 5.1?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores 39.5 and Claude Fable 5.1 scores 53.4, putting Claude Fable 5.1 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.

Can I use DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Claude Fable 5.1 at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Claude Fable 5.1 answer side by side and keep the better response.

deepseek logoanthropic logo

Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Claude Fable 5.1 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.