DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Inkling
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash took 9 min 16 s and $0.063 at list price, Inkling took 8 min 30 s and $0.21 at list price. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash took 1.1× as long, and Inkling cost 3.3× as much.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · $0.50/M out · 1,482 HN pts
Inkling
Thinking Machines · $4.05/M out · free route · 4 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam dedicated to the care, repair, and resurrection of vintage synthesizers. We started in a small workshop near the Maas, surrounded by oscillators, patch cables, and service manuals, because these instruments deserve more than dusty shelves and hasty fixes. Between us, we have decades of experience in electronics, sound design, and restoration, but we approach every machine with the same curiosity: listen first, trace the signal, understand the history, then bring it back to life. Whether it's a crackly filter, a dead voice card, a drifting oscillator, or a power supply that needs rebuilding, we work carefully, honestly, and with respect for original character. We also advise on maintenance, calibrate tuning and envelopes, and source hard-to-find parts when possible. At Patchbay, repair isn't just about making sound again. It's about keeping these instruments making music for decades to come.
Patchbay is a three-person repair studio in Rotterdam dedicated to vintage synthesizers. We work on analog circuits, replace failing capacitors and resistors, calibrate unstable oscillators, and restore instruments that have been silent for years. Our bench sees early Japanese mono synths, European string machines, American polys, and large modular systems. We treat each repair as a specific problem rather than a routine job, because these machines were built differently and fail differently. The studio grew out of our own need for careful, local repairs. Over time, musicians, collectors, and producers across the Netherlands started bringing us gear they could not trust elsewhere. We open every case with the same approach: diagnose the fault properly, use appropriate parts, and test the result thoroughly. We do not apply quick fixes or ignore underlying issues. Whether your synthesizer suffers from tuning drift, dead voices, noisy outputs, or an unknown electrical fault, we are in Rotterdam to find the cause and return it to reliable working condition.
Specs and numbers
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Inkling | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Thinking Machines |
| Made in | China | US |
| Released | 10 Sep 2026 | 17 Jul 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.045 | free route (list $1.00/M) |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.50 | free route (list $4.05/M) |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 524,288 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 1,482 | 4 |
| Time for the six prompts | 9 min 16 s | 8 min 30 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.063 | $0.21 |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was cheaper: $0.15 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Inkling was faster: 46 s less in total, and faster on 3 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Inkling's rebuild matched the screenshot at 51%; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Inkling's game passed 5 of 5 checks; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was not in it.





