Recursive: Flint (free) vs DeepSeek-V4 Pro: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
Recursive: Flint (free) (recursive/flint-v1.0:free) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for Recursive: Flint (free): Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to 0/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
Zero-Config Disk KV Cache ($0.022/1M) & Off-Peak UTC Batch Arbitrage
DeepSeek-V4 Pro (1.6T MoE) automatically caches repeated 64-token prompt prefixes on NVMe storage at $0.022/1M off-peak input tokens (vs $0.66 off-peak base) with zero code changes required, plus off-peak UTC scheduling discounts.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing Recursive: Flint (free) (API ID: recursive/flint-v1.0:free) vs DeepSeek-V4 Pro (API ID: deepseek-v4-pro), Recursive: Flint (free) offers lower standard input pricing at $0/1M tokens ($0/1M output), while Recursive: Flint (free) leads in cached prefix economics at $0/1M tokens (50% discount). DeepSeek-V4 Pro achieves a 125ms faster P90 time-to-first-token latency (155ms vs 280ms).
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
⚠️ Peak/Off-Peak Dynamic Pricing (effective Aug 17): Standard $0.14/$0.28 (Cache Hit $0.044/1M); Peak windows (Beijing 09:00-12:00 & 14:00-18:00) incur 2x surge ($1.32/$3.96 tier equivalent); Off-peak enjoys 50% off.
| Specification / FinOps Dimension | Recursive: Flint (free) | DeepSeek-V4 Pro | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | recursive/flint-v1.0:free | deepseek-v4-pro | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0 / $0 | $0.66 / $1.98 | Recursive: Flint (free) |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0/1M (50% Off) | $0.022/1M (96.7% Off) | Recursive: Flint (free) |
| Context Window / Max Output | 256K In / 230K Out | 128K In / 128K Out | Recursive: Flint (free) |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 155ms | DeepSeek-V4 Pro (-125ms) |
Flint is an open-weight mixture-of-experts model from Recursive, with about 2.5B active parameters out of 40B total, built by Recursive's autoresearch system Eureka Machine for cod
DeepSeek Aug 13, 2026 GA flagship MoE ($0.14/$0.28 base, Official Cache Hit $0.044/1M). Note: Peak hours (Beijing 09:00-12:00 & 14:00-18:00) bill at 2x; off-peak gets 50% discount.
Real-Time Stack Cost & Hidden-Fee Simulator (MAU / Token / Egress / GMV)
Calibrated with Reddit r/FinOps & r/devops telemetry: Includes Context Caching, Bandwidth Egress, and MoR Tax
🐋Switch from Recursive: Flint (free) to DeepSeek-V4 Pro
DeepSeek Aug 13, 2026 GA flagship MoE ($0.14/$0.28 base, Official Cache Hit $0.044/1M). Note: Peak hours (Beijing 09:00-12:00 & 14:00-18:00) bill at 2x; off-peak gets 50% discount. Verified P90 latency of 155ms.