DeepSeek V4 API pricing surges: New peak & off-peak rates explained

DeepSeek has announced adjustments to its API pricing structure for the V4 model lineup, introducing peak and off-peak rate tiers.

A company statement on Thursday showed, Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek will ‌raise API prices for its V4-Pro and V4-Flash models.

As reported, the new rates ranging from 50% to 1,100% above ‌current prices, depending on the model, token type, and time of use will take effect on August 17.

DeepSeek V4-Pro:

Peak pricing periods are designated daily from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM Beijing Time, with all other hours billed at off-peak rates.

According to the statement the V4-Pro (Peak Hours), uncached input pricing will increase from 3 yuan to 9 yuan per million tokens, while output pricing will jump from 6 yuan to 27 yuan per million tokens.

While off-peak rates are adjusted to 4.5 yuan for input and 13.5 yuan for output per million tokens.

DeepSeek V4-Flash:

The high-throughput volume tier will be priced at 1.5 yuan for input and 4.5 yuan for output per million tokens.

Notably, the updated pricing structure is set to take effect on August 17.