Update, 2026-09-02 — this model is not currently responding.
deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-flash-0731is still listed in the free catalogue and has not been retired, but every request we made on 2026-09-01/02 timed out: eight consecutive probes, at ceilings from 45 up to 110 seconds, zero responses. The snippets below are correct and will work if the model recovers.To run them today, substitute a model that is answering — as of this update
minimaxai/minimax-m3, which returned in under 1.5 seconds on the same endpoint and is $0 in/out on the same free tier. ⚠️ We are describing latency we measured on two days, not a permanent verdict: a slow model is not a retired one, and this page will not be rewritten as though it were. CheckGET /ai/v1/modelsfor what is live before trusting any roster in an article, including this one.
DeepSeek V4 is one of the strongest open-weight model families for reasoning, coding, and agentic work, and through InferAll you can call it free via NVIDIA NIM. The available model is deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-flash-0731, tuned for cost-efficient, lower-latency work. No credit card, $0 within the free tier, and it works with the OpenAI SDK you already have.
| Model | Best for |
|---|---|
deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-flash-0731 |
Cost-efficient, lower-latency, high-volume |
It is $0 on the free NVIDIA NIM tier.
Quick start (Python)
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.inferall.ai/v1",
api_key="ifu_your_key_here", # get one at inferall.ai/keys, no card required
)
# Fast, cost-efficient, great default
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-flash-0731",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Refactor this function for readability: ..."}],
max_tokens=512,
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)
The only change from calling OpenAI directly is the base_url. Your existing code, streaming, and tool use all work unchanged.
TypeScript
import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({
baseURL: "https://api.inferall.ai/v1",
apiKey: process.env.INFERALL_API_KEY,
});
const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
model: "deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-flash-0731",
messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Write a SQL migration to add a nullable column." }],
max_tokens: 400,
});
console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);
Why call DeepSeek V4 through InferAll
It's genuinely $0 in / $0 out. DeepSeek V4 runs on NVIDIA NIM (NVIDIA Inference Microservices) on their DGX Cloud infrastructure, which InferAll exposes at $0. No inference cost to pass through, so it stays $0 per call within the free-plan daily request caps (50 chat / 100 text / day, reset 00:00 UTC) — activate via the $5 starter pack at /billing.
One key for DeepSeek and everything else. The same ifu_... key also calls Kimi K3, Gemma, Nemotron, and other free open models, plus paid GPT-4.1, Claude Opus 4, and Gemini 2.5 when you need a frontier model. Switch by changing one string; no juggling provider keys.
OpenAI-compatible. Standard chat.completion responses, streaming, tool use, and JSON mode, all working with whatever OpenAI client you already have. Moving from gpt-4o-mini to deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-flash-0731 is a one-line model-string change.
Pro vs Flash — which to use
Start with Flash. It handles the majority of coding, refactoring, summarization, and structured-output tasks at lower latency, and it's free. Step up to Pro when you hit a genuinely hard reasoning or multi-step agentic problem where you can feel Flash struggling. Since both are $0 on the free tier, the only real cost of using Pro is latency — so use Flash by default and reserve Pro for the hard cases.
Compare it yourself
The best way to pick a model is to watch several answer the same prompt. The full free roster is one call away — curl https://api.inferall.ai/ai/v1/models — so you never hardcode a list that goes stale.
Sign up at inferall.ai/keys, then activate via the $5 starter pack at /billing — 25 free NIM calls come before any payment; the $5 becomes spendable balance for premium providers and unlocks ongoing access to the 25+ NIM open models at $0 in/out (within the free-plan daily request caps).