DeepSeek releases V4.1-Flash-1017 and opens access to its Search API

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DeepSeek has upgraded V4.1 Flash to DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017, replacing the version on the web, App, and API simultaneously. The API access method and pricing remain unchanged, and it is still accessed via deepseek-flash. DeepSeek says the new version improved by 2.0 to 11.1 points over the September version across all 11 benchmarks, while task runtime and output length have been reduced. It recommends upgrading to DeepSeek Harness 0.2.1-rc.1 or later.

Regarding the weights, ITHome says they were made available for download simultaneously under the MIT license; MarkTechPost, however, says that the 1017 weights and hardware requirements have not been disclosed. OpenRouter launched the model on the same day, with DeepSeek as the first service provider to integrate it. The listed price is $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens, with a 1.05M context window. Routing within the EU region is not currently supported.

The in-house search API launched with the new version has a price of 5 yuan per 1,000 calls for both the Search and Fetch interfaces. DeepSeek says these calls are currently free and will be charged per call starting at 00:00 Beijing time on November 1, 2026; The Decoder and MarkTechPost, meanwhile, say that server-side calls through Harness, Claude Code, and Codex are free through October 31.