GoKawiilThe DeepSeek logo is seen on a smartphone screen, with the flag of China in the background.
Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Friday released a preview version of its long-awaited V4 large language model, allowing users to test its new capabilities and features.
The release comes more than a year after the Hangzhou-based company introduced its R1 reasoning model, which rocked global tech markets due to its surprising performance and cost efficiency.
Similar to DeepSeek's previous model releases, the latest upgrade is open-source, allowing developers to download the code, run it locally and modify it in most cases.
The model is available in both a "pro" and a "flash" version, depending on size, with DeepSeek claiming that V4 achieves strong performance against domestic competitors, particularly in agent-based tasks, knowledge processing and inference.
"DeepSeek's V4 preview is a serious flex," offering lower inference costs than previous models, Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.
Inference costs refer to the computational and financial expenses of running a trained AI model to generate outputs.
DeepSeek also said that V4 has been optimized for use with popular agent tools such as Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenClaw.
According to Counterpoint's principal AI analyst, Wei Sun, V4's benchmark profile suggests it could offer "excellent agent capability at significantly lower cost."