DeepSeek-V4 is officially released: millions of context open source models, performance comparable to the world's top closed source models

Core conclusion

On April 24, 2026, DeepSeek officially released the preview version of DeepSeek-V4, which is an important milestone in the field of domestic large models. The new model has a million-word ultra-long context (1M tokens), reaches the best level of open source models in terms of Agent capabilities and reasoning performance. The internal evaluation experience is better than Sonnet 4.5, and the delivery quality is close to Opus 4.6. What is more noteworthy is that DeepSeek-V4 is simultaneously open sourced and released a technical report, the API service is launched simultaneously, and the input price of the V4-Flash version is as low as $0.0028/1M tokens (cache hit).

Key Points

• Release time: 2026-04-24, the preview version is online and open source simultaneously
• Affected objects: AI content producers, Agent automation teams, API callers
• Core changes: Millions of contexts become standard configuration, and the performance of domestic open source models is comparable to the world's top closed source models for the first time

Background and trigger events

The release of DeepSeek-V4 coincides with the intense stage of global AI competition. In mid-April, Anthropic announced an expansion of cooperation with Amazon to build up to 5GW of new computing power; OpenAI's GPT-5.4 Pro has recently caused heated discussions for cracking the Erdos mathematical problem. In this context, Deep Search chose to synchronize the open source V4 preview version and publish a complete technical report, clearly joining the competitive landscape of open source vs closed source.

Key Impact (by Dimension)

Adaptation suggestions

Based on the release of DeepSeek-V4, content production teams should make the following adjustments as soon as possible:

• Evaluate Migration Now: V4-Flash is priced at only $0.14/1M tokens (cache misses) and runs extremely fast, making it suitable for batch content generation scenarios. It is recommended to add DeepSeek as an optional model to existing content production pipelines.
• Utilize millions of contexts: Long context means that one month's article history can be passed into the model at one time for style alignment, or RAG chunking logic can be omitted in knowledge base scenarios.
• Focus on Agent Adaptation: DeepSeek-V4 has been adapted and optimized for mainstream Agent products such as Claude Code, OpenClaw, OpenCode, and CodeBuddy. If you’re using OpenClaw for content automation, now is the perfect time to switch to V4-Pro.
• Old model name will be retired: deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner will be retired on 2026-07-24. It is recommended to update the model name in the code to deepseek-v4-flash or deepseek-v4-pro as soon as possible.

Action List

• Switch the API model to deepseek-v4-flash in the test environment to verify the content quality
• Evaluate the impact of long contexts on existing RAG pipelines
• Update the model name in the pipeline and complete the transition before setting 2026-07-24
• Use DeepSeek-V4 as the underlying model of Agent for A/B testing

Example: API call

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.deepseek.com/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${DEEPSEEK_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "deepseek-v4-pro",
    "messages": [
 {"role": "system", "content": ""},
 {"role": "user", "content": " DeepSeek-V4 "}
    ],
    "thinking": {"type": "enabled"},
    "reasoning_effort": "high"
  }'

Note: Thinking mode supports the reasoning_effort parameter (high/max). For complex Agent scenarios, it is recommended to set the intensity to max.

Related extended information

• DeepSeek-V4
• DeepSeek-V4 HuggingFace
• DeepSeek API

Tool entry (trigger tool floating card)

The release of DeepSeek-V4 means that a number of existing AI automation workflows will need to be adapted. If you are using n8n to manage content flow, or using OpenClaw to build an automatic collection system, you can now replace the underlying model with DeepSeek. Claude and Hermes Agent users can also evaluate V4-Pro as an alternative for teams requiring advanced Agent capabilities. The old model name deepseek-chat will be deactivated in three months, so be sure to migrate in advance.

Internal link guidance

• Want to systematically understand the specific usage of AI Agent tools? See: AI Agent Tools 2026 Complete Tutorial: 5 Tools to Build an Automated Pipeline in 30 Minutes
• Real case: See how independent developers use n8n+OpenClaw to build automated workflows: Indie Developer: n8n + OpenClaw Automation Workflow Earning $5,000/mo