DeepSeek is the cheapest serious AI lab in the world right now. The flagship DeepSeek V4 Flash API costs $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens, which is roughly 35 to 100 times cheaper than GPT-5.5 or Claude Opus 4.7. DeepSeek V4 launched in preview on April 24, 2026 and ships with a native 1 million token context window at no extra charge.
This guide covers every part of DeepSeek pricing in 2026: the new V4 Flash and V4 Pro API rates, the legacy V3 chat and R1 reasoner costs, the free tier and the off-peak discount window. We also cover OpenRouter and AWS Bedrock pricing, plus how DeepSeek stacks up against ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. If you just want a single subscription that bundles DeepSeek with the other top models, we cover that too at the end.
The Key Takeaways
- DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.14/M input (cache miss) and $0.28/M output with a 1M token context window.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro is currently 75% off until May 5, 2026: $0.435/M input and $0.87/M output.
- DeepSeek’s web chat is free for individual users with no Plus or Pro plan.
- The DeepSeek API gives 5 million free tokens to every new account.
- Cache hits cost a fraction of cache misses, so prompt caching can cut bills by 80% or more.
- Off-peak hours (16:30 to 00:30 UTC) historically gave 50 to 75% extra discounts on V3 and R1.
What is DeepSeek pricing?
DeepSeek pricing is pay-per-token: you are charged per million tokens of text the model reads (input) and writes (output). There are no monthly subscriptions on the API and no per-seat fees. Current rates start at $0.14 per million input tokens for DeepSeek V4 Flash and rise to a few dollars per million for the high-end V4 Pro model.
DeepSeek deliberately undercuts every Western lab. As we covered in our DeepSeek V4 launch breakdown, the company’s stated goal is rock-bottom prices, backed by Huawei Ascend and Cambricon chips. That keeps DeepSeek pricing roughly 35 to 100 times cheaper per token than the equivalent OpenAI or Anthropic models.
DeepSeek API pricing 2026 (per million tokens)
Below are the current rates from the official DeepSeek pricing page. All figures are in USD per 1,000,000 tokens.
| Model | Input (cache miss) | Input (cache hit) | Output | Context | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| deepseek-v4-flash | $0.14 | $0.0028 | $0.28 | 1M | Default low-cost model |
| deepseek-v4-pro (regular) | $1.74 | $0.0145 | $3.48 | 1M | Flagship reasoning model |
| deepseek-v4-pro (promo until May 5, 2026) | $0.435 | $0.003625 | $0.87 | 1M | 75% off launch promo |
V3 era launch pricing (deepseek-chat) | $0.27 | $0.07 | $1.10 | 64K | Historic, ID now routes to V4 Flash |
R1 era launch pricing (deepseek-reasoner) | $0.55 | $0.14 | $2.19 | 64K | Historic, ID now routes to V4 Flash |
Both V4 Flash and V4 Pro support a 1 million token context window and a 384K token maximum output. The pre-V4 deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner model IDs still work but now route to V4 Flash modes for backward compatibility, and DeepSeek has flagged them for deprecation. New projects should target the V4 IDs directly.
V4 Flash vs V4 Pro pricing
Deepseek V4 Flash is the cheap, fast workhorse. V4 Pro is the deep-thinking model with a much larger active parameter count. At regular rates, V4 Pro is roughly 12 times more expensive per token than Flash, but during the launch promo the gap narrows to about 3x. If you can finish your prompt before May 5, 2026, the promo price is the deal of the year for a frontier reasoning model.
How does DeepSeek pricing work?
DeepSeek pricing has three layers and you save money on each one.
- Tokens. Every request is metered in input tokens (what you send) and output tokens (what the model generates). One million tokens is roughly 750,000 English words.
- Cache hits. If part of your prompt has been seen recently, DeepSeek serves it from cache at a steep discount (about 98% off the cache-miss rate on V4 Flash). System prompts and shared context benefit the most.
- Off-peak window. DeepSeek has historically offered 50 to 75% off during 16:30 to 00:30 UTC for V3 and R1. The schedule may extend to V4 once the preview ends, so check the docs before relying on it.
You only pay for what you use. There is no minimum spend, no monthly fee, and no charge for context window length itself.
Is DeepSeek pricing free? Free tier and web chat
Yes, DeepSeek has free options. The consumer chat experience at chat.deepseek.com and in the official mobile app is completely free for individual users. There is no Plus plan, no Pro tier, and no paywall on file uploads or long conversations. The only catch is fair-use throttling, so during peak hours you may see “Server Busy” warnings.
For developers, the API includes a 5 million token grant for new sign-ups, valid for 30 days. That is enough for 2,500 to 5,000 test calls depending on prompt length, worth roughly $8.40 at current V4 Flash rates. No credit card is required, and after the grant runs out billing switches to the standard pay-per-token rates above.
DeepSeek pricing on OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock and Azure
If you do not want to use DeepSeek’s own API, several third-party providers host the same models. Pricing varies because each platform adds its own margin, infrastructure cost and routing.
| Provider | Model | Input/M | Output/M | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | DeepSeek V4 Pro | $0.435 | $0.87 | Matches DeepSeek’s promo pricing |
| OpenRouter | DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.14 | $0.28 | Matches direct API |
| OpenRouter | DeepSeek V3.2 | $0.252 | $0.378 | Mid-tier legacy option |
| OpenRouter | DeepSeek R1 (reasoning) | $0.70 | $2.50 | Original R1 chain-of-thought model |
| AWS Bedrock | DeepSeek V3.2 | $0.62 | $1.85 | Higher than direct, but enterprise-friendly |
| Azure AI Foundry | DeepSeek (various) | varies | varies | Pricing depends on region and SKU |
OpenRouter also offers several free DeepSeek distilled models including the smaller R1 distills and DeepSeek V3 Base, with rate limits but no token charges. They are great for prototyping.
DeepSeek R1 vs V3 pricing
This is one of the most-asked questions about DeepSeek pricing. The short answer: R1 reasons better but costs roughly 5 times more per query.
| Model | Input/M | Output/M | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
DeepSeek V3 (legacy deepseek-chat) | $0.27 | $1.10 | General chat, summaries, writing |
DeepSeek R1 (legacy deepseek-reasoner) | $0.55 | $2.19 | Math, logic, multi-step reasoning |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.14 | $0.28 | Replaces V3, cheaper and bigger context |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro (promo) | $0.435 | $0.87 | Replaces R1, frontier reasoning |
R1 generates many more output tokens per request because it produces a chain-of-thought before its final answer. That widens the price gap in practice. With V4, both Flash and Pro support thinking and non-thinking modes, so you can pick reasoning depth on a per-call basis. For more on the original reasoner, see our full breakdown of DeepSeek-R1 and how it beat OpenAI.
How DeepSeek pricing compares to GPT-5.5, Claude and Gemini
| Model | Input/M | Output/M | DeepSeek V4 Flash multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.14 | $0.28 | 1x |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro (promo) | $0.435 | $0.87 | ~3x |
| GPT-5.5 | $5.00 | $30.00 | 35-100x more expensive |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 35-90x more expensive |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $2.00 (under 200K context) | $12.00 | 14-43x more expensive |
DeepSeek is not always the smartest model on a benchmark, but on price per useful token nothing else gets close. For high-volume workloads like content pipelines, summarization, classification and RAG over big corpora, DeepSeek is often the only model that makes the unit economics work.
How to optimize DeepSeek API pricing costs
A few quick wins can cut a DeepSeek bill by 50 to 90 percent.
- Pin your system prompt. Cache hits are 98% cheaper on V4 Flash. Keep the same opening context across requests.
- Pick V4 Flash by default. Only escalate to V4 Pro when the task actually needs reasoning depth.
- Cap your output. You pay per output token, so set
max_tokensto the smallest value that still works. - Schedule batch jobs at off-peak. If the off-peak window applies to your model, run heavy jobs during 16:30 to 00:30 UTC.
- Use V4’s 1M context wisely. A long context window does not cost extra in DeepSeek’s pricing model, so you can stuff more retrieval results in instead of paying for repeat round-trips.
- Try OpenRouter free distills first. Prototype on the free R1 distills, then switch the model ID when you’re ready to ship.
Want DeepSeek without dealing with API keys? Try Fello AI
Most readers do not actually want to write code against an API. They want to chat with the best model for the task without juggling five subscriptions, five web tabs and five different memory contexts.
Fello AI is the simplest way to do exactly that. One subscription gets you DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and several other top models in a single Mac, iPhone and iPad app for $9.99 per month. There is no per-token billing to track, no usage cap to budget around, and no separate account to manage for each provider. Everything lives in one chat window and one history.
Why Fello AI works well for DeepSeek users
DeepSeek is the cheapest serious model on the API, but the official web chat is throttled and the desktop experience is bare-bones. Fello AI fixes both. You get DeepSeek inside a real Mac-native app with prompt history, file uploads, image analysis, voice input and the ability to switch models mid-conversation when DeepSeek is not the right tool for the next message. If your prompt would be better answered by Claude’s writing or GPT’s reasoning, swap models without losing context.
What does it actually save you
Add up the standard subscription cost of the major models: ChatGPT Plus at $20/month, Claude Pro at $20/month, Gemini Advanced at $20/month, Perplexity Pro at $20/month and Grok at $30/month. That is roughly $110 per month for individual access. Fello AI compresses the same lineup into $9.99 per month, with DeepSeek thrown in as part of the bundle. With 25,000+ five-star reviews across the App Store and Mac App Store, it is the most-loved AI bundle app in the Apple ecosystem.
If you would rather keep DeepSeek separate from the others, we also have a guide to a dedicated DeepSeek desktop client for Mac.
Conclusion
DeepSeek pricing in 2026 is the cheapest at the frontier. V4 Flash at $0.14/$0.28 per million tokens beats every Western lab on cost by an order of magnitude. The V4 Pro launch promo at 75% off through May 5 is a rare chance to use a top reasoning model for under a dollar per million output tokens. The web chat stays free, the API hands out 5 million free tokens, and the cache and off-peak discounts can stack on top.
If you build software, go straight to the official DeepSeek pricing page and start with V4 Flash. If you just want to use DeepSeek alongside ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini in one place, Fello AI is the simplest route.
FAQ
Is DeepSeek free?
Yes for individual users. The web chat at chat.deepseek.com and the official mobile app are free with no Plus or Pro tier. The API also gives every new account a 5 million token credit before billing kicks in.
How much does the DeepSeek API cost per million tokens?
DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.14 per million input tokens (cache miss) and $0.28 per million output tokens. V4 Pro is currently $0.435 in and $0.87 out during the launch promo, rising to $1.74 and $3.48 after May 5, 2026.
What’s the difference between V4 Flash and V4 Pro pricing?
V4 Flash is the cheap workhorse at $0.14/$0.28 per million tokens. V4 Pro is the flagship reasoning model and costs roughly 3 times more during the promo and 12 times more at regular rates.
Is DeepSeek pricing cheaper than ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes by a wide margin. DeepSeek V4 Flash is roughly 35 to 100 times cheaper per token than GPT-5.5 or Claude Opus 4.7, although the headline benchmark scores are slightly lower.
What’s DeepSeek pricing on OpenRouter?
OpenRouter mirrors DeepSeek’s direct rates for V4 Flash and V4 Pro and adds several free distilled models for prototyping with rate limits but no token charges.
Does DeepSeek charge extra for the 1 million token context window?
No. The full 1M context is included in the standard token rate on both V4 Flash and V4 Pro.
