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Sunday, October 18, 2026

The File

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Models · Sunday, October 18, 2026

DeepSeek says its fast model got faster

The File desk · Oct 18, 2026, 11:30 AM UTC

Status

Confirmed that DeepSeek posted the update on Saturday. The speed and quality claims are the company's.
  • Confirmed
    DeepSeek posted V4.1-Flash-1017 on Oct. 17 and said it is live on the website, the app, and the API.
  • Partially confirmed
    Stronger tests, faster tasks, and shorter answers are company claims.
  • Confirmed
    Search and fetch is listed at $0.75 per 1,000 calls, with billing starting Oct. 31 at 16:00 UTC.
DeepSeek said Saturday that a new version of its fast model is live on its site, its app, and its paid interface. The company says it finishes tasks faster than the last one. That is DeepSeek's claim.1
The post is dated 2026/10/17 and names the model V4.1-Flash-1017. It says the new version scores higher on tests, finishes tasks faster, and writes shorter answers.
DeepSeek also priced a search-and-fetch tool at 75 cents per 1,000 calls. Billing starts at noon Eastern on Oct. 31.2
A download link on the page points to Hugging Face.

Notes

  1. 1.DeepSeek API docs, “DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017: Wish-Driven Programming Made Real,” 2026/10/17. “Stronger benchmark performance, faster task completion, and shorter outputs than the previous version—a Pareto improvement in performance and cost. Now live on our website, app, and API.” https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news261017
  2. 2.Same page. “Each endpoint: $0.75 per 1,000 calls.” “Billing starts Oct 31, 2026, at 16:00 UTC.” That is noon Eastern. The weights link printed on the page is https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017. This desk did not open that page separately.

What is still unknown or disputed

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017: Wish-Driven Programming Made Real

    DeepSeek API Docs · October 17, 2026

    Stronger benchmark performance, faster task completion, and shorter outputs than the previous version. Now live on our website, app, and API. Each endpoint: $0.75 per 1,000 calls. Billing starts Oct 31, 2026, at 16:00 UTC.

    https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news261017