DeepSeek has launched an experimental multimodal model called DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp, which it claims approaches the performance of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 on various benchmarks. This release signifies DeepSeek’s continued efforts to enhance visual AI capabilities while maintaining lower costs compared to American competitors. The model was introduced on Friday, marking an important step in the company’s strategy to compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
The new model is a multimodal variant of DeepSeek’s existing V4-Flash text model. It preserves the original text functionalities, such as reasoning and general knowledge, while incorporating image understanding features. According to DeepSeek’s benchmarks, the DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp model significantly narrows the performance gap with Opus 4.8. For instance, on the ApexBench, the new model scored 36.5 at Pass@1, while Opus 4.8 achieved 39.4. Moreover, on Agents’ Last Exam, DeepSeek’s model outperformed Anthropic’s with a score of 27.3 compared to Opus 4.8’s 25.7. The model also achieved a score of 35.0 on ZeroBench, surpassing Opus 4.8, which scored 34.0.
Despite its promising results, DeepSeek’s evaluation of its models was conducted using its internal Harness Minimal Mode, meaning that the performance figures have not been independently verified. The DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp model is now available on the DeepSeek API, allowing developers to integrate it into their applications. The pricing structure is designed to keep costs lower than comparable models from U.S. labs, with images billed by token count and capped at 384 tokens per image.
In conjunction with the model release, DeepSeek also introduced version 0.1.1 of its Harness framework, which offers built-in support for the new model. Additionally, a Files API has been made available, enabling developers to upload images once and reference them multiple times using a file ID, without incurring costs.
This launch occurs amid heightened competition from both domestic rivals like Alibaba and Moonshot AI, as well as U.S. firms such as Anthropic and OpenAI. Bloomberg has framed this release as part of DeepSeek’s ongoing challenge to Anthropic’s standing in advanced AI technology. The introduction of the DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp model reflects a broader trend among Chinese AI labs to enhance multimodal and agentic capabilities within mid-tier models. The future of this experimental model will depend on developer adoption, indicating that the next phase of AI competition will increasingly focus on affordable models that can perform visual reasoning tasks.
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