Flint vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Flint took 10 min 5 s and was free at list price, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash took 9 min 16 s and $0.063 at list price. Flint took 1.1× as long.
Flint
Recursive · free route · 36 HN pts
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · $0.50/M out · 1,482 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 began in a small, cluttered workshop in Rotterdam, where solder smoke and old capacitors seem to belong together. We are a three-person studio, which means every synthesizer that comes through our door is handled by one of the same people who started the project. No call center, no hand-off to strangers. We repair vintage synthesizers: the dusty analog beasts, the rare oddities, the ones with missing knobs and mysterious tuning drift. Our work is part electronics, part archaeology, part stubborn love. We listen to the hum before we open the case, and we believe most vintage synths are not dead, just waiting for someone to pay attention. In a city known for moving quickly, we prefer taking our time. Patchbay exists to keep old voices alive, one oscillator, filter, and power supply at a time. If you have a synth that sings, whispers, or hums through the decades, we would be glad to meet it.
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.
Specs and numbers
| Flint | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Recursive | DeepSeek |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 21 Oct 2026 | 10 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $0.045 |
| Price out, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $0.50 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 36 | 1,482 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 5 s | 9 min 16 s |
| List price of the six prompts | free | $0.063 |
Flint was free at list price; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash cost $0.063. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was faster: 49 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Flint's Breakout game loads but doesn't start; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's plays.
Tea Garden experiment: Flint's game passed 5 of 5 checks; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was not in it.





