Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

DeepSeek API vs Tencent Hy4

Tencent Hy4 scores 64 (B) on agent readiness against DeepSeek API's 47.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek API leads on reliability and transparency & trust. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 1044 models comparisons

Which one, for what

DeepSeek API D

Best for Low-cost long-context work on public data, and off-peak batch-style jobs run through the normal API.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 60 against 46
  • Transparency & trust, 65 against 52

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

36 status incidents from 22 July to 15 October 2026, with partial API outages of three hours on 14 September and 4 hours 52 minutes on 15 October

Tencent Hy4 B

Best for Long-context agent work, coding and office or finance tasks on a 1M-token context with images, for teams already on Tencent Cloud or happy to verify an account there.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 73 against 49
  • Agent ergonomics, 86 against 70
  • Security & auth, 71 against 35
  • Payments & pricing, 45 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 46

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where DeepSeek API loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Weights, licence and system card are promised but not published; tencent/Hy4 didn't answer on Hugging Face on 11 November

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Security & auth Tencent Hy4 +36

DeepSeek API 35

Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Model reading. One Bearer key per balance, no scoping found (20 of 30). The privacy policy, last updated 10 February 2026, says personal data is used to train models, with an opt-out by email to privacy@deepseek.com (0 of 20). Data kept for as long as needed to provide the services, with no period stated and no zero-retention route (5 of 15). Per-call logs or audit logs not found (5 of 15). Security programme 5 of 20 (was 0). The www.deepseek.com footer carries a Report Security Issue address, security@deepseek.com, per the 21 October reading used for DeepSeek's open-weight listings and its Search and Fetch API listing. No security.txt (404 on 17 October), disclosure policy, certification or bug bounty found. 20 + 0 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 35.

Tencent Hy4 71

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Bearer keys limited by model, service, IP range and token quota, long-lived with no rotation (26 of 30). The terms say inputs aren't used to train Tencent Cloud's own models, and Hy4 is first party, so no third party's terms apply (14 of 20). Retention only as long as the service needs, no periods (7 of 15). Per-call audit logs and optional full logs to the customer's CLS (14 of 15). No security.txt; Tencent's TSRC bounty covers Tencent Cloud; no certification checked (10 of 20). 26 + 14 + 7 + 14 + 10 = 71.

Maintenance & community Tencent Hy4 +27

DeepSeek API 46

Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Model reading. V4.1 Flash was upgraded to DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 17 October under the same deepseek-flash name and price, posted on the updates page the same day, 19 days before this check (30). Later updates entries are unread. No stated notice policy. deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner got three months, announced on 24 April for 24 July. One dated notice with no stated period partly meets the line, and the earlier partial award is held (4 of 12). Model churn covers the V4 Flash retirement on 10 September and the V4 Pro shutdown set for 14 September, announced on 13 August and withdrawn on 10 September. The 24 July shutdown has left the 90-day window. A retirement and a withdrawn shutdown inside it keep churn at the bottom of its range (0 of 8). Dated updates page, and the docs list api-service@deepseek.com and a Discord server for support. We didn't test whether either answers (12 of 15). No official SDKs or SDK repository (0 of 15, 0 of 10). 30 + 4 + 0 + 12 + 0 + 0 = 46.

Tencent Hy4 73

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Added on 4 November 2026 per the release notes; the model list and price page were updated on 9 November (30). Retirement notices of 21 to 33 days, no minimum written (7 of 12). Heavy retirement churn on the platform (3 of 8). Dated release notes and announcements, round-the-clock support (13 of 15). CLI replies not sampled (3 of 10). Control-plane SDKs and CLI, no inference SDK of its own (12 of 15). CLI runtime stated, CI not checked (5 of 10). 30 + 7 + 3 + 13 + 3 + 12 + 5 = 73. The model is a week old, so these lines are TokenHub's habits more than Hy4's record.

Schema & documentation Tencent Hy4 +24

DeepSeek API 49

Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). No OpenAPI document and no llms.txt found (0 and 0). API reference covers both the OpenAI and Anthropic formats. The chat completion reference, read on 2 October, describes each parameter with its range and default, such as max_tokens from 1 to 393,216 with 8K by default without thinking, but says little on when not to use one (14 of 20). Strict tool calls are documented, in beta at the /beta base URL, with a JSON Schema subset (object, string, number, integer, boolean, array, enum, anyOf, $ref) where every property must be required. JSON output mode carries no schema guarantee (10 of 15). The error codes page lists seven codes, each with a cause and a fix, but no example bodies (10 of 15). Dated updates page that names model changes (15). 0 + 0 + 14 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 49.

Tencent Hy4 73

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. No OpenAPI file for inference; field pages for the OpenAI and Anthropic formats as TokenHub implements them (12 of 25). llms.txt with Markdown copies (10). The model list, updated 9 November, gives hy4's context, input and output limits and marks thinking, structured output, function calling, caching and image understanding; computer use, which Tencent's release names, isn't marked (13 of 20). Typed field pages (10 of 15). Examples in five languages and an error page of 30 codes (14 of 15). Dated release notes, with hy4 added on 4 November (14 of 15). 12 + 10 + 13 + 10 + 14 + 14 = 73.

Agent ergonomics Tencent Hy4 +16

DeepSeek API 70

Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Tool calls through both request formats, and the API reference documents tool_choice as none, auto, required or a named function (20 of 20). Strict schema-enforced tool calls in beta, JSON output without a schema guarantee (10 of 15). Disk cache on by default with cheaper hits, per the listing (15). 1M-token context and up to 384K output (15). No batch API documented (0). No official SDKs, you use the OpenAI or Anthropic client (0). Seven error codes with a fix for each, 402 for an empty balance (10 of 15). 20 + 10 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 70.

Tencent Hy4 86

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Function calling is marked for hy4 in the model list (18 of 20). Structured output marked (13 of 15). Cache-hit price published, ¥0.3 against ¥6 input (14 of 15). 1M-token context with 960K input and 64K output (15). Batch at half price covered Hy3 and Hy4 preview on 1 November; whether it covers hy4 wasn't re-read (3 of 10). OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs with a changed base URL, plus Tencent Cloud's SDK and CLI for the control plane (8 of 10). Errors with code, messages, upstream status and request ID (15 of 15). 18 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 3 + 8 + 15 = 86.

Payments & pricing Tencent Hy4 +15

DeepSeek API 30

Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). No machine payment protocol (0). Per-token prices published without a login and re-read on 17 October, with cache-hit, cache-miss and output rates at peak and off-peak (20). No free tier found. The pricing page mentions a granted balance spent before topped-up funds, but not how one is granted (0). Browser sign-up and a prepaid top-up (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20. Re-scored on 13 November 2026 for the new payments rubric (protocol 10, the other three lines 30 each): 20 is 30.

Tencent Hy4 45

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. No machine payment protocol (0). The price page, updated 9 November, lists ¥6 input, ¥0.3 cached and ¥18 output per million tokens, with Hy4 billed at 50% until 31 December 2026 (20). TokenHub's campaign of 1M free tokens per language model, read on 1 November, isn't confirmed for hy4 on the price page, so half (10 of 20, a judgement call). A person signs up with real-name verification (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30. Re-scored on 13 November 2026 for the new payments rubric (protocol 10, the other three lines 30 each): 30 is 45.

Reliability DeepSeek API +14

DeepSeek API 60

Per the 17 October check, not re-read on 5 November (DeepSeek's terms bar automated access, so nothing on DeepSeek's hosts was requested). Status page at status.deepseek.com, run on Flashduty, with per-API components and a readable feed (20). The recorded feed lists 36 incidents from 22 July to 15 October. Four touch only web search, 27 are degraded performance, and five are partial unavailability, one of them (12 October) the web chat only. Of the four that hit the API, 28 July (7 minutes) has left the 90-day window and 2 September lasted 31 minutes. 14 September (18:30 to 21:30 UTC) left the V4.1 Flash API and chat partly unavailable for three hours, and 15 October (00:11 to 05:04 UTC) left the V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash APIs and chat partly unavailable for 4 hours 52 minutes. Two majors in 90 days sit between one (10) and several (0), so 5. 16 October to 5 November is unread and earns nothing beyond the recorded award (5). Concurrency caps published per account, 2,500 on Flash and 500 on V4 Pro, and requests that haven't started inference after 10 minutes are closed (15). The rate-limit and error pages document 429, and advise a brief wait and retry on 500 and 503, with no Retry-After header, backoff schedule or statement that a retried call is safe (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash are GA (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 60.

Tencent Hy4 46

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. No public status page (0) and so no incident record to read (5 of 30). Per-model rate limits only in the console and DescribeModelQuota (8 of 15). Six 429 codes, Retry-After and backoff advice (13 of 15). The TokenHub SLA promises 99.5% a month, and Hy4 is Tencent's own model, so the third-party exclusion doesn't apply (10). Released as hy4 on 4 November, a separate id from hy4-preview, with no preview label (10). 0 + 5 + 8 + 13 + 10 + 10 = 46.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepSeek APITencent Hy4Edge
Reliability16%206046DeepSeek API +14
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24973Tencent Hy4 +24
Agent ergonomics13%16.27086Tencent Hy4 +16
Security & auth14%17.53571Tencent Hy4 +36
Payments & pricing10%12.53045Tencent Hy4 +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84673Tencent Hy4 +27
Transparency & trust7%8.86552DeepSeek API +13
Negative events≤15-30
TotalD 47.9/100B 64/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepSeek APITencent Hy4
KindModel APIModel API
VendorDeepSeekTencent (Hy team)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.deepseek.comno (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicencenoneHosted model under the Tencent Cloud TokenHub terms. Tencent says weights and a system card will follow; no licence is stated yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-172026-11-04
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Agent reviews2/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

DeepSeek API

Accepts the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic request formats at per-token prices that halve off-peak. The status feed lists 36 incidents from 22 July to 15 October 2026, including partial API outages of three hours on 14 September and almost five hours on 15 October.

Tencent Hy4

Tencent's flagship model is on TokenHub as hy4, with a 1M-token context, image understanding, function calling and caching, at ¥6 input and ¥18 output per million tokens, half price until the end of 2026. The weights it is called open source for aren't published yet, and every benchmark is Tencent's own.

Before you call either

DeepSeek API

  1. Send only data you'd be happy to publish
  2. Schedule bulk work off-peak for half price. Peak runs 01:00 to 04:00 and 06:00 to 10:00 UTC on weekdays, except Chinese public holidays
  3. Set max_tokens yourself. It defaults to 8K without thinking and 64K with it, against a 384K ceiling
  4. For schema-checked tool arguments use base URL https://api.deepseek.com/beta, set strict: true, mark every property required and set additionalProperties: false
  5. Keep a fallback provider and re-run evals after model changes. 429 carries no Retry-After, and deepseek-flash and the legacy deepseek-v4-flash serve V4.1-Flash-1017 since 17 October 2026

Tencent Hy4

  1. Use model id hy4 on TokenHub's OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible endpoints; hy4-preview is a separate, older model
  2. Keep input under 960K tokens and expect at most 64K output
  3. Reuse prompt prefixes: cached input is ¥0.3 against ¥6
  4. Check the price page for the end of the 50% discount on 31 December 2026 before budgeting
  5. Read rate limits from the console or DescribeModelQuota; the public docs don't give them for chat models

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek API or Tencent Hy4?

Tencent Hy4 scores 64 (B) on agent readiness against DeepSeek API's 47.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek API leads on reliability and transparency & trust.

Do DeepSeek API and Tencent Hy4 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call DeepSeek API and Tencent Hy4 without installing anything?

DeepSeek API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.deepseek.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for Tencent Hy4.

Other comparisons with DeepSeek API or Tencent Hy4

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.