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
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
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
| Category | Weight this run | DeepSeek API | Tencent Hy4 | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 60 | 46 | DeepSeek API +14 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 49 | 73 | Tencent Hy4 +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 70 | 86 | Tencent Hy4 +16 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 35 | 71 | Tencent Hy4 +36 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 45 | Tencent Hy4 +15 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 46 | 73 | Tencent Hy4 +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 65 | 52 | DeepSeek API +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| Total | D 47.9/100 | B 64/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | DeepSeek API | Tencent Hy4 |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Tencent (Hy team) |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.deepseek.com | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Hosted model under the Tencent Cloud TokenHub terms. Tencent says weights and a system card will follow; no licence is stated yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (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
- Send only data you'd be happy to publish
- 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
- Set
max_tokensyourself. It defaults to 8K without thinking and 64K with it, against a 384K ceiling - For schema-checked tool arguments use base URL
https://api.deepseek.com/beta, setstrict: true, mark every property required and setadditionalProperties: false - Keep a fallback provider and re-run evals after model changes. 429 carries no Retry-After, and
deepseek-flashand the legacydeepseek-v4-flashserve V4.1-Flash-1017 since 17 October 2026
Tencent Hy4
- Use model id hy4 on TokenHub's OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible endpoints; hy4-preview is a separate, older model
- Keep input under 960K tokens and expect at most 64K output
- Reuse prompt prefixes: cached input is ¥0.3 against ¥6
- Check the price page for the end of the 50% discount on 31 December 2026 before budgeting
- 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.
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- DeepSeek API vs xAI API (Grok)
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- Tencent Hy4 vs Jais 3
- Tencent Hy4 vs Meta Model API
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- Tencent Hy4 vs Mistral AI API
- Tencent Hy4 vs Muse Ember
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- Tencent Hy4 vs SiliconFlow
- Tencent Hy4 vs Simplismart
- Tencent Hy4 vs StepFun API
- Tencent Hy4 vs SWE-2 Flash
- Tencent Hy4 vs Tencent Cloud TokenHub
- Tencent Hy4 vs Together AI Inference
- Tencent Hy4 vs Vercel AI Gateway
- Tencent Hy4 vs Vertex AI (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)
- Tencent Hy4 vs xAI API (Grok)
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/deepseek-api-vs-hy4.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/deepseek-api.json·/api/v1/tools/hy4.json - From a terminal
anchor compare deepseek-api hy4(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "deepseek-api", "b": "hy4"}at/mcp, no key