DEEPSEEK VS ALIBABA
DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3.5 Plus
DeepSeek V4 Flash is about 5.1x cheaper than Qwen3.5 Plus on a blended 3:1 input:output rate — the same 10K-in/2K-out request costs $0.002 vs $0.0088. Both models have the same 1,000,000-token context window.
Pricing verified
API pricing per 1M tokens
| Model | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | Blended (3:1 mix) |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.14 | $0.28 | $0.175 |
| Qwen3.5 Plus | $0.40 | $2.40 | $0.90 |
Rates from official DeepSeek pricing and official Alibaba pricing, checked 2026-08-11.
What a real workload costs
Example: one request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens, then that request at 100,000 runs per month.
| Model | Per request (10K in / 2K out) | Per month (100K requests) | Monthly delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.002 | $196 | — |
| Qwen3.5 Plus | $0.0088 | $880 | +$684 |
Model your own prompt sizes and volumes in the token cost analyzer, or check caching savings with the prompt caching calculator.
Specs side by side
| Spec | DeepSeek V4 Flash | Qwen3.5 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Alibaba |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Model class | General text | General text |
| Tokenizer | Proprietary (counts estimated) | Proprietary (counts estimated) |
Count tokens for each model on its own page: DeepSeek V4 Flash token counter and Qwen3.5 Plus token counter. All DeepSeek models are on the DeepSeek Token Counter. All Alibaba models are on the Qwen Token Counter.
FAQ
DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3.5 Plus FAQ
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen3.5 Plus?
DeepSeek V4 Flash is cheaper. At rates checked 2026-08-11, DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.14 input / $0.28 output per 1M tokens, while Qwen3.5 Plus costs $0.40 input / $2.40 output — about a 5.1x difference on a typical 3:1 input-heavy workload.
How much does a real request cost on DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3.5 Plus?
A request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens costs about $0.002 on DeepSeek V4 Flash and $0.0088 on Qwen3.5 Plus. At 100,000 such requests per month that is $196 vs $880 — a difference of $684 per month.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen3.5 Plus?
They are equal: both support 1,000,000 tokens of context, roughly 750,000 English words shared between prompt and response.
Do DeepSeek V4 Flash and Qwen3.5 Plus count tokens the same way?
Not exactly. DeepSeek V4 Flash uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates) and Qwen3.5 Plus uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates). The same prompt will tokenize differently, which shifts effective cost per word.