DeepSeek Launches V4 Flash at $0.03 per Task as 37% Accuracy Clouds 105x Cost Edge
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Aug 3
DeepSeek Launches V4 Flash at $0.03 per Task as 37% Accuracy Clouds 105x Cost Edge
3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Aug 3
Summary
DeepSeek’s V4 Flash debuted Friday at an estimated $0.03 per benchmark task, versus $3.15 for Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5, giving it a roughly 105-fold price advantage.
Artificial Analysis scored V4 Flash at 50 on its Intelligence Index—matching Google Gemini 3.6 Flash—but its AA-Omniscience benchmark showed just 37% accuracy and an 84% hallucination rate.
Those results suggest the savings could be offset by retries, human verification, compliance checks, delayed projects and errors that reach customers or employees.
OpenAI’s July 17 “Useful Intelligence Per Dollar” framework offers a way to judge that trade-off by measuring successful tasks, true cost per task, accuracy and whether quality holds as usage scales.
For employers, the broader question is whether cheaper models fit only low-risk workflows, while higher-risk work still justifies paying more for stronger output quality.