Update April 2026: DeepSeek has released the V4 generation! V4-Flash (292B) and V4-Pro (1.6T parameters) offer 1M token context and 384K token output. Both models are available as open weights on HuggingFace. innFactory AI Consulting from Germany advises on all deployment options.
DeepSeek V4 - The New Generation (April 2026)
DeepSeek has made a significant leap with the V4 generation:
V4-Flash
- 292B parameters total, 158B active
- 1M token context window with 384K token output
- Thinking and non-thinking mode
- API:
deepseek-v4-flash - Pricing: $0.14/1M input, $0.28/1M output
V4-Pro
- 1.6 trillion parameters total, 862B active
- 1M token context window with 384K token output
- Thinking and non-thinking mode
- API:
deepseek-v4-pro - Pricing: $1.74/1M input, $3.48/1M output
Note: The previous API names
deepseek-chatanddeepseek-reasonerwill be deprecated on July 24, 2026 and redirected to V4-Flash.
Key Strengths
Open Source & Licensing
DeepSeek offers full transparency:
- Public Weights: Fully available on GitHub/Hugging Face
- Licensing: R1 under MIT, V3 under a separate Model Agreement
- Community: Active development
- Customizable: Fine-tuning and modifications possible
MoE Architecture
DeepSeek uses innovative Mixture-of-Experts:
- 671B parameters total, but only 37B active per request
- Efficient: High performance with reduced resource requirements
- Multihead Latent Attention: New attention mechanism
Reasoning Capabilities (R1)
DeepSeek-R1 shows transparent thinking processes:
- Chain-of-thought is made visible
- Particularly strong in mathematics and logic
- Comparable to OpenAI o1
EU Availability (Update February 2026)
DeepSeek is now available through all three major cloud providers in EU regions:
AWS Bedrock
- Regions: Frankfurt (eu-central-1), Ireland (eu-west-1)
- Models: DeepSeek-V3.1, V3.2
- Advantage: Serverless, immediate availability
Azure AI Foundry
- Regions: West Europe, Sweden Central
- Models: V3, R1
- Advantage: Integration into Azure ecosystem
Google Vertex AI
- Regions: Frankfurt (europe-west3), Netherlands (europe-west4)
- Models: V3.2, R1
- Advantage: Vertex AI Model Garden
Self-Hosting
Still available for maximum control and full GDPR compliance.
Important Notes
Data Privacy Considerations
Update February 2026: With availability on AWS Bedrock, Azure AI, and Google Vertex AI in EU regions, enterprises can now use DeepSeek GDPR-compliant in the cloud!
- Cloud Hosting (EU): Data remains in EU regions with AWS/Azure/Google
- Direct API: DeepSeek servers in China (caution with sensitive data)
- Self-Hosting: Still the option with maximum control
For Enterprises: Cloud providers offer EU data residency with full compliance. Self-hosting remains an alternative for highest security requirements.
Self-Hosting as a Solution
The open-source model can be operated in your own infrastructure:
- All data remains under your control
- No dependency on external APIs
- Full GDPR compliance possible
- Hardware requirements: Multiple high-end GPUs (A100/H100)
Price-Performance
DeepSeek offers excellent value:
- API: Very affordable prices (approx. 90% cheaper than GPT-4)
- Self-Hosting: Free to use (only hardware costs)
- No License Fees: R1 under MIT, V3 under Model Agreement
Our Recommendation
DeepSeek is technically impressive and reaches frontier-level performance in reasoning and coding. With the new EU availability on AWS, Azure, and Google, enterprises can now use DeepSeek GDPR-compliant.
For most enterprises, we recommend:
- Cloud Option: DeepSeek-V4-Flash via the API or EU cloud providers - affordable, powerful, 1M context
- Self-Hosting: DeepSeek-V4-Flash or V3.2 for maximum control and customizability
The choice depends on your requirements for control, compliance, and technical resources.