DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Grok 4.7: Pricing, Benchmarks, Coding and Access

1. At a glance

USD per million tokens; input rates shown are uncached standard rates. Conditions are explained below. Checked October 28, 2026.

2. API pricing: account for caching and long prompts

On DeepSeek's official API, off-peak cache-miss input, cache-hit input, and output cost $0.15, $0.003, and $0.60 per million tokens. Peak rates are $0.30, $0.006, and $1.20. Peak hours are Monday–Friday 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, excluding Chinese public holidays; all other hours are off-peak.

For Grok 4.7's standard API, prompts below 200k tokens cost $2 for input, $0.50 for cached input, and $6 for output per million tokens. Once a prompt reaches 200k, the entire request uses long-context rates of $4, $1, and $12 respectively. Grok 4.7 Fast is billed separately in Cursor and Grok Build and is not offered on the public xAI API.

OpenRouter and other providers set their own rates and routing; those are not the same as direct API prices. Coding Plan subscriptions and token-based billing are also different pricing models. Check the actual provider before buying.

3. Benchmarks: interpret the published numbers carefully

DeepSeek's 1017 model card reports 42.3 on Terminal-Bench 4.0 and 77.0 on DeepSWE v1.1. xAI reports 37.6% and 71.0% for Grok 4.7, marking the latter as high effort. These publications do not establish identical agents, prompts, budgets and test runs. Treat them as reported results, not a controlled ranking or a reliable performance gap.

In xAI's launch table, CursorBench 4.0 results are 46.3% for Grok 4.7, 40.4% for Grok 4.6, 41.7% for GPT-5.6 Sol, and 51.8% for Fable 5.1. These are xAI's results, not a universal ranking for coding. DeepSeek's model-card table includes GPT-5.6 Sol and Opus 5 but not Grok 4.7. Model revisions, reasoning effort, tools, datasets and budget all affect scores.

Run a useful evaluation

Select 20–50 real tasks representative of your work. Fix the repository snapshot, prompts, tools and maximum budget. Record test pass rate, human acceptance, input/output and cached tokens, total cost and elapsed time. Repeat runs and retain failure cases. Vendor results should not be presented as your own tests.

4. Coding, reasoning and everyday work

Both support image understanding; that does not imply image or video generation. Grok's web search and X search are API tools that must be enabled and may incur tool charges. Built-in model knowledge is not live information. DeepSeek Search and Fetch are separate APIs, billed separately from model tokens.

5. Access: API, Cursor, Copilot and OpenRouter

Direct API

Create a key in the respective console, configure billing and permissions, and store the key in a server-side environment variable. These are minimal text examples; never place a real key in client-side code or a public repository.

curl https://api.deepseek.com/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"model":"deepseek-flash","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Explain this function."}]}' 

curl https://api.x.ai/v1/responses \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"model":"grok-4.7","input":"Explain this function."}' 

The examples use different endpoints documented by each vendor. When migrating an agent, check tool calls, image formats, reasoning settings and context management separately.

Cursor

xAI lists Grok 4.7 as available in Cursor: update the app and look for the model in its picker. Access and billing depend on the account and plan. Check Cursor's current model list and settings for DeepSeek and bring-your-own-key support; a compatible endpoint does not automatically work with every agent feature.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub currently lists Grok 4.7 as supported. In a supported Copilot surface, select it from the model picker if your plan and organization allow it. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is not on that supported-model list, so direct selection should not be assumed. Copilot subscription and usage rules differ from direct API billing.

OpenRouter

OpenRouter lists both models on its comparison page. Create an OpenRouter key, copy the current model ID from the model page, and use its API or a compatible client. Check provider routing, rates, context and data policies; aliases and upstream providers can change.

6. Which should you choose? FAQ

Which is better for coding?

Without a controlled evaluation, there is no defensible overall winner. Start with DeepSeek for inexpensive high-volume work; include Grok when Cursor integration and long-running tool workflows matter. Test both on the same real issues.

Which is cheaper?

DeepSeek is cheaper under the standard direct-API rates and short-context example above. Compare cost per successfully completed task, since generated tokens, caching, tools and retries differ.

Can I run DeepSeek locally?

The 1017 weights are released under MIT with inference instructions. Running them requires compatible hardware and software; open weights do not imply a modest hardware requirement.

What changed from Grok 4.6?

xAI says 4.7 uses a larger base model and improves long tasks, self-checking and context management. Its launch table lists the same standard short-context rates as 4.6. Verify the gains on your own workload.

What about privacy?

Before uploading code or documents, review each provider's retention, training use, region and contractual terms. Self-hosting can provide more control but makes the operator responsible for security and operations.