Daniel Mercer
Enjoy 50% off during off-peak hours compared to peak-hour pricing.
DeepSeek has established itself as a budget-friendly alternative to its more expensive western rivals, but that era of affordability is coming to a close. The company is notifying its customers to brace for substantial price increases with the launch of its latest model. With the introduction of the DeepSeek V4 Pro, API pricing will increase by four times. The company explained that this change includes new peak and off-peak pricing to optimize resource allocation.
Effective August 16, the DeepSeek V4 Pro model will charge $3.96 for 1 million output tokens during peak hours, a significant jump from the current rate of $0.87. during off-peak hours, the cost will be reduced to $1.98. In contrast, the DeepSeek V4 Flash model will be priced at $1.32 for 1 million output tokens (up from $0.28) during peak hours and $0.66 during off-peak hours.
It’s important to note that the previous API pricing was initially intended as a promotional offer ending on May 31. Although DeepSeek had announced plans to make discounted prices permanent, the decision was later reversed, leading to the upcoming price adjustments.
Despite the impending fourfold increase, DeepSeek’s V4 models remain considerably less expensive than numerous competitors. For instance, the Kimi K3 model from the Chinese company Moonshot costs $15 per 1 million output tokens, while OpenAI’s most advanced model, GPT-5.6 Sol, is priced at $30 for the same amount. Even OpenAI’s lower-cost offering, GPT-5.6 Luna, has a rate of $1.20, which is still more than the DeepSeek V4 Flash’s peak hour rate.
David Bridges
