Head-to-head
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Step-5-Pre
A 0.4-point composite gap — but the real story is the dimension mix. Same weights, unpacked: who leads where, and whether the premium is justified.
The short answer
The composites differ by 0.4 points, and their strengths do not overlap.
Stronger overall: effectively tied. If you only run one workload, read the dimension table instead.
Overlaid radar
Same weights, same scale; overlap means parity
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash93.4
- Step-5-Pre93.0
Dimension deltas
A on the left, B on the right; 100 max per row
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash leads 4, Step-5-Pre leads 3, tied 1.
Spec sheet
Hard specs in one table
| Item | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | Step-5-Pre |
|---|---|---|
| Composite | 93.4 | 93.0 |
| Tier | S | S |
| Visual perception & grounding | 95 | 96WIN |
| Document parsing & Chinese OCR | 97WIN | 95 |
| Chart & document reasoning | 95WIN | 93 |
| Video & long-horizon reasoning | 91 | 91 |
| GUI agents & tool use | 93 | 94WIN |
| Generation & editing | 82WIN | 78 |
| Chinese context & culture | 90 | 93WIN |
| Ecosystem, cost & availability | 95WIN | 94 |
| Output price | ¥0.6 / M | ¥4 / M |
| Context | 128K | 128K |
| Parameters | Undisclosed (MoE, ~8B active) | Undisclosed (MoE) |
| Licence | Open weights (MIT) | Commercial + on-prem licence |
| Native multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Evidence grade | B | B |
How to choose
Choose DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash if…
- High-volume receipt, contract and scan structuring
- Cost baseline and control group for document pipelines
- Commercial on-prem work that needs an MIT licence
- You cannot accept its limitation: 128K context is the smallest in tier S; whole manuals still need chunking.
How to choose
Choose Step-5-Pre if…
- A flagship-class stand-in for edge-cloud products
- Production video understanding
- Speech-plus-vision-plus-video devices
- You cannot accept its limitation: Generation and editing at 78 — effectively no usable text-to-image or Chinese glyph rendering.
Scenario check
Five scenarios, who holds up
| Scenario | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | Step-5-Pre | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese receipt OCR | 95 | 95 | Tie |
| Chart data extraction | 95 | 93 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash |
| 30-min video QA | 91 | 91 | Tie |
| Mobile GUI control | 93 | 94 | Step-5-Pre |
| Chinese cultural context | 90 | 93 | Step-5-Pre |
Comparison FAQ
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash vs Step-5-Pre: which is stronger?
Composite: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash 93.4, Step-5-Pre 93.0. DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash leads on Document parsing & Chinese OCR, Chart & document reasoning, Generation & editing, Ecosystem, cost & availability; Step-5-Pre leads on Visual perception & grounding, GUI agents & tool use, Chinese context & culture. The stronger overall is effectively tied.
How much more expensive is DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash than Step-5-Pre?
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash is ¥0.6/1M output tokens; Step-5-Pre is ¥4/1M. On output price, Step-5-Pre is pricier; real cost also depends on image tokens and input share.
Can Step-5-Pre replace DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash?
It depends on your primary workload. If it sits in Step-5-Pre’s strengths (A flagship-class stand-in for edge-cloud products, Production video understanding, Speech-plus-vision-plus-video devices), yes. If you need High-volume receipt, contract and scan structuring, switching will cost quality.
Personal ranking · Not an official score
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