API cost decision in 10 seconds
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 vs 🔥DeepSeek V4 Pro
Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro when budget and context both matter.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, DeepSeek V4 Pro is estimated at $0.87 vs $1.2 for Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20, saving $0.33 (27.5% lower).
Cost-first pickDeepSeek V4 Pro
Context-first pickDeepSeek V4 Pro
Sample savings$0.3327.5%
10x traffic gap$3.3
DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $3.3. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Cost winner changes by workload shape: input-heavy / RAG favors Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20, balanced workload favors DeepSeek V4 Pro, and output-heavy chatbot favors DeepSeek V4 Pro.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | $2.4 | $2.61 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | DeepSeek V4 Pro | $2.1 | $1.3 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | DeepSeek V4 Pro | $9.3 | $4.78 |
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has the lower input price, DeepSeek V4 Pro has the lower output price, and DeepSeek V4 Pro offers the larger context window.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.2 for Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 and $0.87 for DeepSeek V4 Pro.
Choose Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 when you care most about lower input-token price.
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro when you care most about lower output-token price, and larger context window.
| Feature | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 (Qwen) | 🔥DeepSeek V4 Pro (DeepSeek) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.3 | $0.43 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $1.8 | $0.87 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $1.2 | $0.87 |
| Context Window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Release Date | 2026-04-27 | 2026-04-24 |
| Popularity | #6 |
Qwen3.5 Plus (April 2026) is a large-scale multimodal language model from Alibaba. It accepts text, image, and video input and produces text output, with a 1M token context window. This...
DeepSeek V4 Pro is a large-scale Mixture-of-Experts model from DeepSeek with 1.6T total parameters and 49B activated parameters, supporting a 1M-token context window. It is designed for advanced reasoning, coding,...
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | DeepSeek V4 Pro | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, DeepSeek V4 Pro is estimated at $0.87 vs $1.2 for Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20, saving $0.33 (27.5% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts or retrieved passages dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | DeepSeek V4 Pro | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages and source files. |