DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Claude Haiku 5.5
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the open-weights low-cost workhorse and Claude Haiku 5.5 is Anthropic's cheapest model. They list at $0.15 / $0.60 (off-peak) and $0.10 / $0.50 per 1M tokens.
Our verdict
Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper on paper for short prompts and scores higher on the Artificial Analysis index (43 against 39), but it is a closed model. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has MIT-licensed open weights, so it is the one to choose when customer data cannot leave your own servers, and it stays cheap on long prompts, where Claude Haiku 5.5 jumps to $0.50 / $2.50 above 100K tokens. DeepSeek bills double at peak hours (01:00-04:00 and 06:00-10:00 UTC on weekdays) and Artificial Analysis flags it as very verbose, so measure the bill on a real task before committing.
Benchmarks measure test tasks, not your business. Run a real job through both models before you commit.
Side by side
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Claude Haiku 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Lab | DeepSeek | Anthropic |
| List price per 1M tokens (input / output) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.10 / $0.50 |
| Scheduled price | - | - |
| Price notes | Off-peak rate; peak hours (01:00-04:00 and 06:00-10:00 UTC on weekdays) are $0.30 / $1.20. | For prompts up to 100K tokens; over 100K the rate is $0.50 input and $2.50 output. |
| Example job at list price | $0.27 | $0.20 |
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Released | ||
| Open weights | Yes | No |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | 39 (Sep 23, 2026 capture)flagged by AA as very verbose | 43 (Oct 8, 2026 capture)at max effort |
1M tokens in and 200K tokens out. List price only: models write different amounts, so a finished job can cost more or less. (1,000,000 / 200,000)
Common questions
Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash cheaper than Claude Haiku 5.5?
Not on short prompts: Haiku 5.5 lists at $0.10 in and $0.50 out per 1M tokens against DeepSeek's off-peak $0.15 and $0.60. Above 100K tokens Haiku rises to $0.50 and $2.50, which makes DeepSeek cheaper for long prompts.
Can I run DeepSeek V4.1 Flash myself?
Yes. Its weights are MIT-licensed and published on Hugging Face, so a business that cannot send data to a cloud API can host it on its own hardware. Claude Haiku 5.5 is only available through Anthropic and its cloud partners.
Which scores higher?
Artificial Analysis scored Haiku 5.5 43 (at max effort) and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 39, so Haiku is ahead on that index.
Sources
More model comparisons
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