DeepSeek V4 Pro hits OpenRouter with notable output variance across reasoning levels

Simon Willison · rss · 2026-08-13

The latest DeepSeek Pro model is now available via API on OpenRouter. The author's tests reveal a fascinating behavior: the model produces significantly different outputs (like a 'pelican riding a bicycle') across its low, medium, and high reasoning levels—a variance rarely seen in other models.

Interestingly, the model's benchmark scores had a chaotic dissemination path: initially shared in an official WeChat group, copied to Reddit where it was deleted by mods for being 'low-effort', and finally preserved as an ASCII-art table on Hacker News.

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