Here's the classic mistake: default everything to your best model, and drain its quota on trivia before lunch — explanations, tiny edits, syntax lookups — then hit empty exactly when a real problem shows up.
The fix is routing by difficulty, not habit. But first, know what the two tiers actually are.
What is DeepSeek V4 Pro?
DeepSeek V4 Pro is DeepSeek's flagship reasoning model — up to 1M tokens of context and multiple reasoning-effort levels. It's built for hard multi-file work and long agent loops, where a wrong answer costs you a redo.
What is DeepSeek V4 Flash?
DeepSeek V4 Flash is the fast, cheap sibling — a 284B-parameter MoE with only 13B active, tuned for high-frequency, deterministic work: explanations, commit messages, single-file edits, quick lookups. It's dramatically cheaper and returns faster.
The two free tiers
Both are exposed by TeamoRouter with a free tier — 200 requests/day each, per account, reset daily, no card required:
-
deepseek-v4-pro-free→ multi-file reasoning, long agent loops, anything where a wrong answer costs you a redo. -
deepseek-v4-flash-free→ the volume work: explain a function, commit messages, single-file edits, quick lookups.
What goes to Pro
Pro's value is getting it right the first time. Route it:
- Multi-file reasoning — cross-module changes that need repo-wide understanding.
- Long agent loops — build + self-test + fix, where reasoning depth drives success.
- Hard problems — hard-to-reproduce bugs, deep architecture questions.
200 real Pro turns comfortably cover a normal day's hard problems — hard work is few and focused, not won by volume.
What goes to Flash
Flash's value is cheap + fast for high-volume, deterministic work:
- Explain a function or an error
- Write commit messages, update docs
- Single-file edits
- Quick lookups ("how does this syntax work", "this library's API signature")
200/day absorbs basically all of this. Handing it to Flash preserves your Pro quota.
The routing rule
if task == light (explain / small edit / commit / lookup):
use deepseek-v4-flash-free
elif task == hard (multi-file / long loop / high-stakes):
use deepseek-v4-pro-free
elif either quota == 0:
use the matching paid model
The fallback
Once either free tier hits zero, the matching paid model has no account-level limit:
| Free tier | Paid fallback | Price (per 1M) |
|---|---|---|
deepseek-v4-pro-free |
deepseek-v4-pro |
$1.74 / $3.48 flat |
deepseek-v4-flash-free |
deepseek-v4-flash |
$0.14 / $0.28 flat |
Going over quota isn't painful — it just goes from zero to a few dollars.
Two free tiers, 200/day each → TeamoRouter
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