Deepseek · Promo ✓ verified recently

DeepSeek API (pay-as-you-go, off-peak discount)

unrated confidence: high

Verdict

DeepSeek API is pure pay-as-you-go (no sub, no free tier): V4-Flash $0.44/$1.32 and V4-Pro $1.32/$3.96 per 1M in/out at peak, all half price off-peak (99% of hours); legacy deepseek-chat/deepseek-reasoner SKUs are retired as of the 2026-08-16 V4 pricing change.

The terms

Pure pay-as-you-go token billing (no monthly fee or free tier): deepseek-v4-flash $0.22/$0.66 per 1M in/out peak ($0.007 cache-hit input), deepseek-v4-pro $0.66/$1.98 peak ($0.022 cache-hit input), all at half price off-peak; 1M-token context, up to 384K output.

From the official page

"The prices listed below are in units of per 1M tokens."

"OFF-PEAK$0.007$0.022$0.007PEAK$0.014$0.044$0.0141M INPUT TOKENS(CACHE MISS)OFF-PEAK$0.22$0.66$0.22PEAK$0.44$1.32$0.441M OUTPUT TOKENSOFF-PEAK$0.66$1.98$0.66PEAK$1.32$3.96$1.32Concurrency Limit(3)25005002500"

"(1) Off-peak rates are half of the peak rates. Peak hours are 01:00 - 04:00 and 06:00 - 10:00 UTC, Monday through Friday (all other hours are off-peak)."

"MODELdeepseek-v4-flashdeepseek-v4-prodeepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp"

"THINKING MODESupports both non-thinking and thinking (default) modesSee Thinking Mode for how to switchCONTEXT LENGTH1MMAX OUTPUTMAXIMUM: 384K"

"we will adopt peak/off-peak pricing, with off-peak prices set at half of the peak-hour prices, encouraging users to schedule their tasks based on actual usage. The new prices will take effect at 16:00 (UTC Time) on August 16, 2026."

Official source: api-docs.deepseek.com

Verified 2026-08-25

The math

Free within provider limits — effective marginal cost is $0 until quotas are hit.

Watch out

Machine-discovered entry — numbers trace to official sources via quotes; editorial verdict pending.