DeepSeek kept its top model alive after users pushed back.
DeepSeek said V4.1 Flash, its budget model, beats the pricier V4 Pro on speed, cost and quality. Every V4 Pro request was due to move to the cheaper model on 14 September. (Correction: DeepSeek now says it will keep V4 Pro running past that date, with prices unchanged.)
Why it mattersCheap Chinese models keep pushing down the price of work you may pay for elsewhere. When a provider retires a model, apps tuned to it break, so a reprieve matters.
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