Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.5 or Llama 4 Scout?

DeepSeek V3.5 is cheaper at the input + output rate combined: $0.420 versus $0.800 per million tokens.

Which has higher quality, DeepSeek V3.5 or Llama 4 Scout?

DeepSeek V3.5 has the higher AA Intelligence Index score: 81 versus 75.

Can I switch between DeepSeek V3.5 and Llama 4 Scout via one API?

Both DeepSeek V3.5 and Llama 4 Scout are accessible through OpenRouter's unified gateway, which lets you switch models with one API key. Phase 2 of AIpricly will add scenario-routed automatic primary + fallback chains.

DeepSeek V3.5 vs Llama 4 Scout

Side-by-side pricing, capabilities, real-world cost across common scenarios, and our editorial pick.

Add a modelUp to 4 models can be compared

all prices in USD per 1M tokens

OVERALL WINNER

DeepSeek V3.5

DeepSeek · released 2025-12-01

Quality (AA Index)81

Input price$0.14

Output price$0.28

Context128K

Throughput95 tok/s

P50 latency1.5s

View full pricing

Llama 4 Scout

Meta · released 2026-01-25

Quality (AA Index)75

Input price$0.20

Output price$0.60

Context256K

Throughput380 tok/s

P50 latency0.2s

View full pricing

Try DeepSeek V3.5 on OpenRouter Try Llama 4 Scout on OpenRouter

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Head-to-head specs

Green column = winner per metric

Metric	DeepSeek V3.5	Llama 4 Scout	Verdict
Input price /1M tokens	$0.14	$0.20	DeepSeek V3.5 −30%
Output price /1M tokens	$0.28	$0.60	DeepSeek V3.5 −53%
Context window max input length	128K	256K	Llama 4 Scout +2.0×
AA Quality AA Intelligence Index (0–100)	81	75	DeepSeek V3.5 +6pt
Arena Elo LMArena human-pref Elo (800–2000)	—	—	Tied
Throughput tokens per second	95	380	Llama 4 Scout +300%
P50 latency first token	1.5s	0.2s	Llama 4 Scout −87%
Vision multimodal	—	—	Tied
Function calling tool use			Tied
Reasoning mode chain-of-thought	—	—	Tied

Monthly cost across common scenarios

Default usage assumptions

Scenario	DeepSeek V3.5	Llama 4 Scout
customer support 1000K req · 600/180 tok	$134	$228
chat with docs 300K req · 4000/300 tok	$193	$294
code generation 500K req · 2000/500 tok	$210	$350
voice assistant 600K req · 800/200 tok	$101	$168

Our pick

For most workloads, choose DeepSeek V3.5.

30% cheaper input price, which compounds at scale

Roughly GPT-4o-class quality at roughly 90% off. Tradeoff is region availability (Chinese provider) and slower output throughput than Western frontier tiers.

Choose Llama 4 Scout instead if: Tradeoffs for this pair have not yet been documented. The quality difference may be small enough that workload fit, integration cost, and team familiarity decide the choice.

Read our deep analysis

The Cheapest LLM API for Production in 2026

Why pick? Use both with smart routing

Phase 2 · gateway with fallback chain

Set DeepSeek V3.5 as primary, Llama 4 Scout as fallback. One key, one bill, automatic failover when DeepSeek V3.5 errors.

PHASE 2 PREVIEW · gateway not live yetThis endpoint does not exist yet. The gateway is in Phase 2 — what you see below is a design preview of the planned interface, not a live API. We will email subscribers when it launches.

Preview the planned API call

$ curl https://api.aipricly.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIPC_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "routing": {
      "primary": "deepseek/deepseek-v3-5",
      "fallback": ["meta/llama-4-scout"]
    },
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}]
  }'