Step 3.5 Flash 2603 vs DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7 B: cost comparison
Prices updated 2026-11-06 · computed from live provider data
Short answer: DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7 B is cheaper on a
3:1 input/output blend — $0.125 per million tokens versus
$0.150, a 17% difference.
Step 3.5 Flash 2603 offers the larger context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7 B.
Head to head
| Step 3.5 Flash 2603 | DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7 B | |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $0.100 | $0.100 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $0.300 | $0.200 |
| Blended 3:1, per 1M | $0.150 | $0.125 |
| Context window | 262,144 | 131,072 |
| Vendor | empiriolabs | gmi |
Monthly cost at real volumes
| Workload (input / output) | Step 3.5 Flash 2603 | DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7 B |
|---|---|---|
| 1M in / 250K out | $0.175 | $0.150 |
| 10M in / 2.5M out | $1.75 | $1.50 |
| 100M in / 25M out | $17.50 | $15.00 |
Which should you pick?
Pick Step 3.5 Flash 2603 when you need the longer context window (262,144 vs 131,072 tokens). Pick DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7 B when price per token dominates your workload — high-volume classification, extraction, or batch summarisation.