Claude Fable 5.1 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: pricing and benchmarks
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 97% cheaper on input tokens ($0.30 vs $10.00 per 1M). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 98% cheaper on output tokens ($1.20 vs $50.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $156.00 a month versus $5,500 for Claude Fable 5.1, 97% less. Claude Fable 5.1 scores 164.7 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 155.6 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
Prices verified October 29, 2026.
Which should you choose?
Claude Fable 5.1 scores 164.7 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 155.6 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
Claude Fable 5.1 scores 90.2% on FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3) vs 67.4% for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.525 per 1M tokens (3:1 input-to-output mix) vs $20.00 for Claude Fable 5.1, 97% less.
A trade-off: Claude Fable 5.1 is 9.1 ECI points more capable but costs 38.1x as much as DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
Pricing and specs
| Claude Fable 5.1 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | DeepSeek |
| API model ID | claude-fable-5-1 | deepseek-flash |
| Input / 1M tokens | $10.00 | $0.30 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.25 | $0.006 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $50.00 | $1.20 |
| Long-context rates | — | — |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | 128K tokens | 384K tokens |
| Batch discount | 50% off | — |
Benchmarks
| Claude Fable 5.1 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 164.7 | 155.6 |
| GPQA Diamond· Science reasoning | — | 89.8% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3)· Advanced math | 90.2% | 67.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified· Factual accuracy | 70.8% | 42.9% |
| ARC-AGI-2· Abstract reasoning | 90.0% | 72.9% |
| DeepSWE· Coding | — | — |
| APEX-Agents· Agentic work | 68.6% | 39.5% |
Source: Epoch AI, best recorded result per model (CC BY 4.0). A dash means no published score. See all benchmarks
Monthly cost for real workloads
| Workload | Claude Fable 5.1 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Support chatbot 100,000 replies a month, ~1,500 input tokens (system prompt + history) and ~400 output tokens each. | $3,500 | $93.00 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 97% cheaper |
Document Q&A (RAG) 50,000 questions a month with ~8,000 tokens of retrieved context and ~600 output tokens each. | $5,500 | $156.00 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 97% cheaper |
Coding agent 10,000 agent steps a month, ~40,000 input tokens each (70% read from the prompt cache) and ~2,000 output tokens. | $2,270 | $61.68 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 97% cheaper |
Estimates use standard list prices and ignore cache-write surcharges. Different tokenizers can count the same text differently, so test with your own prompts.
Claude Fable 5.1 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash cost calculator
- $156.00/mo$0.0031 / request
- Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$5,500/mo$0.11 / request
Standard-tier list prices. Long-context rates apply automatically where the provider publishes a threshold. Excludes cache-write surcharges, taxes, batch and volume discounts.
Claude Fable 5.1 pricing notes
Anthropic’s model for demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work.
- Cache hits cost 2.5% of the base input price, versus 10% on other Claude models.
- Cache writes cost $12.50 (5-minute cache) or $20 (1-hour cache) per 1M tokens.
- Uses Anthropic’s newer tokenizer, which produces roughly 30% more tokens for the same text.
- US-only inference (inference_geo: "us") costs 1.1x.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash pricing notes
DeepSeek’s low-cost model with thinking and non-thinking modes, tool calls and vision input.
- Prices shown are peak rates. Off-peak rates are half: peak hours are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, Monday to Friday.
- Compatible with both OpenAI-format and Anthropic-format APIs.
- Served by model version DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017; the legacy names deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp route to it at the same price.
- Web Search and Fetch cost $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests each; calls made through Claude Code, Codex or DeepSeek Harness are free until November 1, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Claude Fable 5.1 cheaper than DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 97% cheaper on input tokens ($0.30 vs $10.00 per 1M). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 98% cheaper on output tokens ($1.20 vs $50.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $156.00 a month versus $5,500 for Claude Fable 5.1, 97% less.
- Which is more capable, Claude Fable 5.1 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
- Claude Fable 5.1 scores 164.7 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 155.6 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
- How much does Claude Fable 5.1 cost per 1M tokens?
- Claude Fable 5.1 costs $10.00 per 1M input tokens and $50.00 per 1M output tokens, and $0.25 per 1M cached input tokens on Anthropic’s standard tier.
- How much does DeepSeek V4.1 Flash cost per 1M tokens?
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens, and $0.006 per 1M cached input tokens on DeepSeek’s standard tier.
- Which has the larger context window, Claude Fable 5.1 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
- Both offer a 1M-token context window.