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Comparisons

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3.5 9B FP8

On provider list prices, DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.14 per million input tokens against $0.17 for Qwen3.5 9B FP8: 1.2x apart. Output is $0.28 against $0.25.

DeepSeek V4 Flash Qwen3.5 9B FP8
LabDeepseekQwen
AccessOpen weightsOpen weights
Context window1M tokens256K tokens
List price, input$0.14 / M tokens$0.17 / M tokens
List price, output$0.28 / M tokens$0.25 / M tokens
Cached input$0.028 / M tokensn/a
LicenseNot listedNot listed
Fine-tunableYesYes

Specifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-21.

What the numbers say

Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $266 a month on DeepSeek V4 Flash and $291.50 on Qwen3.5 9B FP8 at list: a gap of $25.50.

DeepSeek V4 Flash reads 1M tokens per request against 256K for Qwen3.5 9B FP8, 4.0x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.

DeepSeek V4 Flash$0.14$0.28
Qwen3.5 9B FP8$0.17$0.25
InputOutput

Choose DeepSeek V4 Flash for

  • The lower list price ($0.14 in / $0.28 out per M tokens)
  • The longer context window (1M vs 256K tokens)
  • Published cached-input pricing ($0.028 per M tokens)
DeepSeek V4 Flash details

Choose Qwen3.5 9B FP8 for

  • Training toward a model you own
Qwen3.5 9B FP8 details

Common questions

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen3.5 9B FP8?

DeepSeek V4 Flash, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $0.14/$0.28 per million tokens in and out against $0.17/$0.25 for Qwen3.5 9B FP8. Billed on Allocate: $0.15/$0.30 against $0.18/$0.27.

Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 1,048,576 tokens (1M) against 262,144 (256K) for Qwen3.5 9B FP8.

Can I fine-tune DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen3.5 9B FP8?

Both publish open weights (DeepSeek V4 Flash: Not listed; Qwen3.5 9B FP8: Not listed), so both can be fine-tuned. On Allocate the trained weights stay inside your boundary and belong to you.

Related comparisons

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct ReferenceQwen3.5 9B FP8 vs Meta Llama 3 8B Instruct Reference

Run the numbers on your workload

LLM price comparisonAgent cost calculatorDeepSeek V4 FlashQwen3.5 9B FP8

Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.

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