AllocateDeepSeek V4 vs Inkling
On provider list prices, DeepSeek V4 costs $1.74 per million input tokens against $1.87 for Inkling: 1.1x apart. Output is $3.48 against $4.68 (1.3x). On Allocate both bill at list plus the 7% transaction fee.
DeepSeek V4
InklingSpecifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-08. Billed price is list plus the 7% transaction fee.
What the numbers say
Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $3,306 a month on DeepSeek V4 and $3,882 on Inkling at list: a gap of $576, or 1.2x.
Inkling reads 1M tokens per request against 512K for DeepSeek V4, 2.0x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.
Choose DeepSeek V4 for
- Reasoning-heavy agents
- Long-document analysis
- Cost-sensitive production routes
Choose Inkling for
- The longer context window (1M vs 512K tokens)
- Open weights you can fine-tune and own
- Fine-tuning under a permissive license (Apache 2.0)
Common questions
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 or Inkling?
DeepSeek V4, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $1.74/$3.48 per million tokens in and out against $1.87/$4.68 for Inkling. Billed on Allocate: $1.86/$3.72 against $2.00/$5.01, list plus 7%.
Which has the bigger context window?
Inkling: 1,000,000 tokens (1M) against 512,000 (512K) for DeepSeek V4.
Can I fine-tune DeepSeek V4 or Inkling?
Inkling publishes open weights (Apache 2.0) and can be fine-tuned on your own data. DeepSeek V4 is a closed model served over API; its weights are not available.
Related comparisons
Run the numbers on your workload
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.