Pricing review
DeepSeek Pricing
Verified DeepSeek app access and current V4 API token pricing from official sources.
Free consumer chat with unusually low V4 API token prices
Great At
- Chat
- Coding
- Research
Cost watchouts
- API prices change by peak and off-peak hours
- Consumer app limits are not a paid service guarantee
- API spend varies with cache behavior and output length
Best for cost-sensitive chat users and developers who can manage usage-priced APIs.
Current public plans
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek App | $0 | DeepSeek provides free access to its official web chat and app. | Free chat, reasoning, coding, and web search |
How to read the total cost
DeepSeek API rates are USD per one million tokens, with separate cache-hit input, cache-miss input and output charges. Off-peak V4.1-Flash rates are $0.003/$0.15/$0.60; peak rates are $0.006/$0.30/$1.20. V4 Pro stays at $0.022/$0.66/$1.98 off-peak and $0.044/$1.32/$3.96 peak. Peak hours are Monday-Friday 01:00-04:00 and 06:00-10:00 UTC; all other hours, including weekends and Chinese public holidays, are off-peak. Both models have a 1M context and maximum 384K output. Use deepseek-flash; legacy Flash aliases route to V4.1-Flash. Current official documentation says V4 Pro continues after September 14 with billing unchanged, superseding the older routing announcement.
Price History
Current API prices and model routing were checked on September 13, 2026. The old V4 Flash and experimental vision model names now route to DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash and use its rates. This current-price check alone does not establish the date of that change. DeepSeek states that V4 Pro API service continues after September 14, 2026 with its billing method unchanged.
Price Trend by Plan
No independently verified price history is available yet.
API Cost Calculator
V4.1 Flash off-peak
Token estimate only. Tool calls, storage and other usage charges are extra.
How this estimate works
Input tokens × input rate + output tokens × output rate. Volumes are in millions of tokens; rates are USD per million tokens for the selected model, time and cache state.
Subscription vs API
DeepSeek web chat and the official app are free to access. API usage is separate and metered per one million tokens. Peak hours are 01:00 to 04:00 and 06:00 to 10:00 UTC, Monday through Friday, excluding Chinese public holidays. All other hours use the lower off-peak rates. API expense is the number of tokens multiplied by the applicable price. When both are available, DeepSeek deducts fees from granted balance before topped-up balance. Free web/app access does not include free developer API consumption. API charges separate cache-hit input, cache-miss input and output; peak hours are specified in UTC, not browser local time.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Official web chat and app are free to access
- Current API pricing separates cache-hit and cache-miss input
- Flash and Pro support one-million-token context; Flash also supports vision
Cons
- API rates change between weekday peak and off-peak hours
- Free consumer access is not a paid service guarantee
- API spend varies with cache behavior and output length
Check the official plan before buying
Prices, allowances, and usage rules can change. Use the verified source above for checkout.
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