DeepSeek V4-Pro vs Llama 4 Scout

DeepSeek · China  |  Meta · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick DeepSeek V4-Pro for open-weight 1.6t moe (~49b active) — deepseek's largest, self-hostable or 1m-token context with up to 384k output tokens. Pick Llama 4 Scout for largest advertised context (10m) or open weights, single-gpu friendly. On a tight budget at scale, Llama 4 Scout is the value pick.

DeepSeek V4-Pro (DeepSeek, China) and Llama 4 Scout (Meta, US) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. DeepSeek V4-Pro is deepSeek's 1.6-trillion-parameter open-weight model at $0.435/$0.87 — strong open-weight coding and a 1M context at a fraction of flagship prices. Llama 4 Scout is the 10M-token open-weight giant — enormous on paper, but usable recall is far smaller. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecDeepSeek V4-ProLlama 4 Scout
ProviderDeepSeek (China) Meta (US)
ReleasedApril 24, 2026 April 2025
Context window1M (~1,500 pages) 10M (~15,000 pages)
Price (in/out)$0.435/$0.87 per 1M tokens Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, code text, image, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published 15%

Who wins what

Open-weight 1.6T MoE (~49B active) — DeepSeek's largest, self-hostable

DeepSeek V4-Pro

DeepSeek's 1.6-trillion-parameter open-weight model at $0.435/$0.87 — strong open-weight coding and a 1M context at a fraction of flagship prices — and it is the newer of the two.

1M-token context with up to 384K output tokens

DeepSeek V4-Pro

Llama 4 Scout is comparatively weak here — ~15% on long-context multi-needle reasoning

Permanent low pricing at $0.435/$0.87 per million, set May 2026

DeepSeek V4-Pro

DeepSeek V4-Pro lists permanent low pricing at $0.435/$0.87 per million, set May 2026 among its strengths; Llama 4 Scout does not.

Largest advertised context (10M)

Llama 4 Scout

Its 10M window holds about 10× more than DeepSeek V4-Pro's 1M in a single prompt.

Open weights, single-GPU friendly

Llama 4 Scout

The 10M-token open-weight giant — enormous on paper, but usable recall is far smaller — and it carries the larger 10M context.

Self-hosted, data-private deployment

Llama 4 Scout

Llama 4 Scout lists self-hosted, data-private deployment among its strengths; DeepSeek V4-Pro does not.

Lowest cost at scale

Llama 4 Scout

Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of DeepSeek V4-Pro's $0.435/$0.87 per 1M tokens.

Largest single-prompt input

Llama 4 Scout

Its 10M window is about 10× larger than DeepSeek V4-Pro's 1M, fitting roughly 15,000 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

Llama 4 Scout

At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts DeepSeek V4-Pro, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

Llama 4 Scout

Larger 10M window fits more in one prompt.

Anyone whose priority is open-weight 1.6t moe (~49b active) — deepseek's largest, self-hostable

DeepSeek V4-Pro

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is largest advertised context (10m)

Llama 4 Scout

That is its strongest area.

An enterprise with regional data-residency rules

Llama 4 Scout or DeepSeek V4-Pro

Origin (China vs US) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.

DeepSeek V4-Pro: where it fits

DeepSeek's 1.6-trillion-parameter open-weight model at $0.435/$0.87 — strong open-weight coding and a 1M context at a fraction of flagship prices. Released April 24, 2026 by DeepSeek, it is built for open-weight 1.6T MoE (~49B active) — DeepSeek's largest, self-hostable, 1M-token context with up to 384K output tokens, permanent low pricing at $0.435/$0.87 per million, set May 2026, and sources place it near the top of open-weight coding, around 80 on SWE-Bench Verified.

Its trade-offs are real: independent SWE-Bench Verified placement is inconsistent across sources, pro and Pro-Max variants are quoted with different scores, text and code only — no image, audio or video, and overlaps DeepSeek V4 and V3.2 already in this comparison. At $0.435 in / $0.87 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

Llama 4 Scout: where it fits

The 10M-token open-weight giant — enormous on paper, but usable recall is far smaller. Released April 2025 by Meta, it is built for largest advertised context (10M), open weights, single-GPU friendly, self-hosted, data-private deployment, and retrieval over very long inputs.

Its trade-offs: effective recall degrades far below 10M, and ~15% on long-context multi-needle reasoning. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

The bottom line for this matchup

This is less "which is smarter" and more "which ecosystem fits." DeepSeek V4-Pro (China) and Llama 4 Scout (US) differ on pricing philosophy, data-residency, and tooling as much as on raw scores. Llama 4 Scout is the cheaper option, which matters at volume. The pragmatic move is to run one real task through both and judge the outputs against your own constraints — including where your data is allowed to be processed.

Want both DeepSeek V4-Pro and Llama 4 Scout without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek V4-Pro or Llama 4 Scout better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, DeepSeek V4-Pro leans toward open-weight 1.6t moe (~49b active) — deepseek's largest, self-hostable while Llama 4 Scout leans toward largest advertised context (10m), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4-Pro or Llama 4 Scout?

Llama 4 Scout is cheaper — $0.435/$0.87 per 1M tokens vs Open weight (self-host / free).

Which has the bigger context window?

Llama 4 Scout — 10M vs 1M, about 10× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both DeepSeek V4-Pro and Llama 4 Scout together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you DeepSeek V4-Pro, Llama 4 Scout and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, DeepSeek V4-Pro or Llama 4 Scout?

DeepSeek V4-Pro — released April 24, 2026, about 13 months after Llama 4 Scout.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.