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AI model comparison

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs LongCat 2.0

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
$0.15
Output / 1M
$0.60
Context
1.05M

LongCat 2.0 is a sparse mixture-of-experts language model from Meituan, with 48B active parameters out of 1.6T total.

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

Comparing image generators? Compare image models

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

2x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

deepseek logo

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

24.7 vs 19.1 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

meituan logo

LongCat 2.0

1.05M vs 1.05M 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 Flash24.7
meituan logoLongCat 2.019.1

Coding index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 FlashNot available
meituan logoLongCat 2.045.3

Agentic index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 FlashNot available
meituan logoLongCat 2.014

Pricing

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs LongCat 2.0 API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashmeituan logoLongCat 2.0
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.15$0.30
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$0.60$1.20
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens$0.00$0.01
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot availableNot available

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$0.60
meituan logoLongCat 2.0$1.20

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$6.90$2.49 cached
meituan logoLongCat 2.0$13.80$4.98 cached

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$23.70$1.65 cached
meituan logoLongCat 2.0$47.40$3.30 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 Flashmeituan logoLongCat 2.0
Context window1.05M tokens1.05M tokens
Max output393K tokens262K tokens
Input typesImage, TextText
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsMax, High, Low, NoneNot available
Default reasoning effortHighNot available
Release dateSeptember 10, 2026July 20, 2026

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashmeituan logoLongCat 2.0
Tool callingSupportedSupported
Structured outputsSupportedNot supported
JSON modeSupportedNot supported
ReasoningSupportedSupported
TemperatureSupportedSupported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedSupported
Verbosity controlNot supportedNot supported

Our take

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 2x cheaper for a typical chat. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (24.7 vs 19.1). LongCat 2.0 has the larger context window (1.05M vs 1.05M 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 LongCat 2.0 cheaper?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens, while LongCat 2.0 costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or LongCat 2.0?

LongCat 2.0 supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1.05M for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash smarter than LongCat 2.0?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores 24.7 and LongCat 2.0 scores 19.1, putting DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 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 LongCat 2.0 at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and LongCat 2.0 answer side by side and keep the better response.

deepseek logomeituan logo

Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and LongCat 2.0 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.

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