ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Official Baidu ERNIE and DeepSeek API prices and LMArena scores, checked 2026-11-14. Add up to 2 more models to compare 4.
ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview costs less; quality is n/a.
ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview is 1.1x cheaper on input and output. LMArena has no task both models are ranked on, so quality is n/a here. A medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) costs $11.25 on ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview and $12 on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
- Pick ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview if you want the lower bill ($11.25 vs $12 for a medium month).
- Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash if you reuse long prompts (cached input $0.006 vs $0.028).
Medium: 20M input + 5M output tokens a month at list price (short-context rate, no caching or batch discounts).
Marked side is better: lower for prices, higher for context and scores. Bars are scaled to the larger of the two.
| Spec | ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M tokens | ||
| Input | $0.28 | $0.30 |
| Cached input | $0.028 | $0.006 |
| Output | $1.13 | $1.20 |
| Blend 3:1 | $0.4925 | $0.525 |
| Sample month, medium | $11.25 | $12 |
| Context | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Quality (LMArena, out of 100) | ||
| Coding | Not ranked | 38/100 #15 of 53 |
| Chat | Not ranked | 7/100 #20 of 54 |
| Creative writing | Not ranked | 0/100 #25 of 54 |
| Roleplay and characters | Not ranked | 0/100 #26 of 54 |
| Reasoning and math | Not ranked | 35/100 #14 of 52 |
| Vision | Not ranked | 17/100 #16 of 33 |
| Long documents | Not ranked | Not ranked |
| Cheap bulk and agents | Not ranked | 26/100 #19 of 40 |
| Details | ||
| Provider | Baidu ERNIE | DeepSeek |
| API model id | ernie-5.5-flash-preview | deepseek-flash |
| Notes | Preview released Nov 11, 2026. 280B total, 14B active parameters. Baidu says Apache 2.0 open weights are coming. | Peak rate. Off-peak is half price. |
| Sources | ||
| Last checked | 2026-11-14 | 2026-11-14 |
| Official pricing | Baidu ERNIE pricing | DeepSeek pricing |
Plans from data checked hourly against each vendor's official pricing page. Vendors state limits in different units, so we quote them as published. Team and enterprise plans are per seat.
API prices in USD per 1M tokens from each provider's official pricing page. Blend 3:1 = (3 x input + output) / 4. Sample month = stated input and output tokens at the list price, no caching. Quality: relative score out of 100 on each LMArena leaderboard (100 = top model we price on that board, n/a = not ranked there), data licensed CC BY 4.0. See how we pick.
Where each one ranks on LMArena
Relative score out of 100 on each leaderboard (100 = the top model we price there), with the rank among the models from our API price table that appear on that board.
- Coding (Code Arena): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash #15 of 53 (38/100)
- Chat (Text Arena): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash #20 of 54 (7/100)
- Creative writing (Text Arena creative writing): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash #25 of 54 (0/100)
- Roleplay and characters (Text Arena multi-turn): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash #26 of 54 (0/100)
- Reasoning and math (Text Arena math): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash #14 of 52 (35/100)
- Vision (Vision Arena): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash #16 of 33 (17/100)
- Long documents (Document Arena): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash not ranked
- Cheap bulk and agents (Agent Arena): ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview not ranked, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash #19 of 40 (26/100)
Pricing details from the official pages
ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview lists $0.28 input, $1.13 output, $0.028 cached input per 1M tokens on Baidu ERNIE pricing. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash lists $0.30 input, $1.20 output, $0.006 cached input per 1M tokens on DeepSeek pricing. Prices checked 2026-11-14.
- ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview: Preview released Nov 11, 2026. 280B total, 14B active parameters. Baidu says Apache 2.0 open weights are coming.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: Peak rate. Off-peak is half price.
Sample monthly bill at list price, no caching: Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $1.12 vs $1.20. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $11.25 vs $12. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $112.50 vs $120.
FAQ
Is ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview cheaper than DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview costs $0.28 input and $1.13 output per 1M tokens; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 and $1.20. For a medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview is cheaper: $11.25 vs $12.
Which is better for coding, ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
Code Arena score: ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview n/a (not ranked), DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 38/100. We do not guess missing scores.
Which has the bigger context window?
ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview: 1M tokens. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 1M tokens. Both list the same window.
How much do ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash cost per month?
Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $1.12 vs $1.20. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $11.25 vs $12. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $112.50 vs $120. Pick your own token counts in the plan vs API calculator.
Where do these numbers come from?
Prices come from each provider's official pricing page, checked daily. Quality is the relative score on the LMArena leaderboard dataset, licensed CC BY 4.0. Where a model is not ranked we show n/a.
Sources
Related
- Cheapest LLM APIs, compared
- Baidu ERNIE API pricing, every model
- DeepSeek API pricing, every model
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
- MiniMax-M3 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs GPT-6 Luna
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Claude Haiku 5.5
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3.8 Flash
- Seed 2.1 Turbo vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Step 3.5 Flash vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash