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OpenClaw + DeepSeek V4 Flash: Setup, 0731 Benchmarks, and Pricing

DeepSeek refreshed V4 Flash on 31 July 2026. Same architecture, same parameter count, rebuilt post-training — and a large jump on agent and coding benchmarks. Here is what changed and how to run it on OpenClaw.

What Changed in the 0731 Build

DeepSeek updated deepseek-v4-flash to the DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 build. This is not a new model generation. DeepSeek has been explicit that the architecture and parameter count are unchanged from the preview build — it is a post-training upgrade, and the gains land almost entirely on agentic and coding work.

The practical detail that matters most: the model ID did not change. Per DeepSeek's release note, you still call deepseek-v4-flash and you are served the latest build. If you already run a DeepSeek V4 Flash agent on OpenClaw Launch, you are on the 0731 build already — no redeploy, no config edit, no model switch.

DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 Benchmarks

DeepSeek published nine agent-focused benchmark results for the official build. The three with published preview-build comparisons show how lopsided the retraining was:

BenchmarkPreview build0731 build
Terminal Bench 2.161.882.7
DeepSWE7.354.4
DSBench-FullStack37.068.7

The remaining six published scores for the 0731 build:

BenchmarkScore
Cybergym76.7
Toolathlon (verified)70.3
DSBench-Hard59.6
NL2Repo54.2
Agent Last Exam25.2
Automation Bench (Public)25.1

For scale: V4-Pro-Preview scores 72.1 on Terminal Bench 2.1, so the cheap Flash model now runs ahead of the previous flagship preview on that test. DeepSeek reports the official Flash build matching or beating V4-Pro-Preview across several of the nine benchmarks.

Read this honestly: these are DeepSeek's own published numbers on agent-flavored benchmarks, not independent evaluations, and a jump from 7.3 to 54.4 on DeepSWE says as much about how weak the preview build was on that test as about how strong 0731 is. Frontier models like Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 still lead on the hardest long-horizon coding work. What the 0731 build genuinely changes is the price-to-capability floor for routine agent loops.

Responses API and Codex Compatibility

The 0731 build natively supports the Responses API format and is advertised as compatible with Codex-style clients. If you have tooling written against that request shape, V4 Flash can now sit behind it directly rather than through a translation layer.

DeepSeek V4 Flash Pricing

Flash is priced well below Pro, and DeepSeek's cache-hit rate makes repeated-context agent loops extremely cheap. Direct DeepSeek API pricing per million tokens:

ModelInput (cache hit)Input (cache miss)OutputConcurrency
DeepSeek V4 Flash$0.0028$0.14$0.282,500
DeepSeek V4 Pro$0.003625$0.435$0.87500

Routed through OpenRouter instead, V4 Flash runs about $0.09 input / $0.18 output per million tokens. Two things to plan around: DeepSeek has said direct-API pricing will move to a peak/off-peak model where peak hours cost 2× (peak is 09:00–12:00 and 14:00–18:00 Beijing time), and the cache-hit rate is roughly 50× cheaper than cache-miss — so a long, stable system prompt reused across turns is worth structuring for.

Deploy DeepSeek V4 Flash on OpenClaw Launch

The fastest path is the managed route — no DeepSeek account and no API key, billed against your included AI credits.

  1. Go to openclawlaunch.com and open the configurator.
  2. Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash in the model dropdown.
  3. Choose your chat platform — Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, WeChat, or the browser gateway.
  4. Click Deploy. Your agent is live in about 30 seconds.
Already running V4 Flash? You are on the 0731 build automatically, because the model ID is unchanged upstream. Nothing to do.

Self-Hosted Configuration

Running your own OpenClaw instance? Point the default agent at V4 Flash through OpenRouter in openclaw.json:

{
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "openrouter": {
        "apiKey": "sk-or-..."
      }
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get an OpenRouter key at openrouter.ai/keys. To call DeepSeek directly instead of through OpenRouter, configure the deepseek provider and set the primary model to deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash.

Flash or Pro After the 0731 Build?

The 0731 refresh narrowed this decision considerably. Flash used to be the compromise you accepted to save money on agent loops; on DeepSeek's published agent benchmarks it now leads V4-Pro-Preview on several tests while costing roughly a third as much on output tokens.

  • Start with V4 Flash for agent tool loops, terminal and coding work, high-volume chat, and anything where you are paying per turn. It is the default worth beating, and at 2,500 concurrency it is the better fit for busy bots.
  • Reach for V4 Pro for the hardest long-horizon reasoning — deep multi-file refactors, architecture work, and analysis that genuinely walks the full 1M context.
  • Switch freely. Change models from the dashboard or with the /model chat command. No redeploy needed, so benchmark both on your own workload rather than trusting anyone's table.

BYOK with DeepSeek V4 Flash

Already have an OpenRouter account or a direct DeepSeek API key? Bring it to OpenClaw Launch via BYOK — select BYOK in the configurator and paste your key. Requests route through your key and your own billing.

What's Next?

Deploy with DeepSeek V4 Flash

Get an agent on the 0731 build running in about 30 seconds. AI credits included.

Deploy Now