DeepSeek has released V4.1-Flash-1017, an updated AI model, and opened new web search and page-fetching tools to API users. The release gives developers a newer model for coding and project-building tasks while adding access to live web content through DeepSeek’s platform.
V4.1-Flash-1017 reaches users
DeepSeek said the updated model is now available on its website, mobile app and API. The company describes it as having stronger benchmark performance, faster task completion and shorter outputs than the previous version. It also says the model is better at building complete projects, including games and 3D scenes. Those performance claims come from DeepSeek and have not been independently verified.
DeepSeek kept the deepseek-flash model name for API access. Its change log says the API calling method and model pricing remain unchanged. The update is dated October 17, 2026, placing it within the past 24 hours. (DeepSeek API change log)
Search tools add live web access
Alongside the model update, DeepSeek opened its Search API and Fetch API. Search finds web pages and returns structured results, while Fetch retrieves the contents of a single page for use by an application or AI agent. DeepSeek says its search engine indexes hundreds of billions of web pages and supports multilingual queries. (DeepSeek Search and Fetch documentation)
Each successful search or fetch request costs $0.75 per 1,000 calls. DeepSeek says server-side search requests made through DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code and Codex will remain free for its API users until October 31, 2026, at 16:00 UTC. The documentation describes both tools as read-only.
Open weights broaden deployment
DeepSeek has published V4.1-Flash-1017 weights on Hugging Face under the MIT license. The repository lists the model at about 510 GB. (Hugging Face model repository)
DeepSeek says the model is optimized for DeepSeek Harness, Tencent CodeBuddy and WorkBuddy. Its announcement also makes the open model release available to developers and organizations that want to examine or deploy the weights.
Pricing deadline arrives October 31
DeepSeek says billing will begin for currently free server-side search requests on October 31, 2026, at 16:00 UTC. The published price is $0.75 per 1,000 successful Search API calls and the same rate for Fetch API calls.
References
DeepSeek. (2026, October 17). DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017: Wish-driven programming made real. DeepSeek API Docs. https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news261017/
DeepSeek. (2026, October 17). Change log. DeepSeek API Docs. https://api-docs.deepseek.com/updates/
DeepSeek. (2026, October 17). Search and Fetch. DeepSeek API Docs. https://api-docs.deepseek.com/guides/search/
DeepSeek. (2026, October 17). DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017. Hugging Face. https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017