Provider · verified 16 Oct 2026
DeepSeek 深度求索
DeepSeek sells a pay-as-you-go API and a free consumer chat app. The API price page is the one to trust for tokens. It is peak and off-peak, not a flat number, and the model name deepseek-flash is the current V4.1 Flash billing name.
There is no coding-plan subscription on that pricing page. You pay for tokens. Off-peak is half of peak. Peak hours are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC on weekdays, excluding Chinese public holidays.
Models on the latest OpenRouter snapshot
| Model | Input | Output | vs Opus |
|---|---|---|---|
deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash | $0.036 | $0.684 | 98% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp | $0.216 | $0.647 | 96% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro-0813 | $1.32 | $3.96 | 75% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-0731 | $0.013 | $1.28 | 96% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro | $0.955 | $1.91 | 85% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash | $0.091 | $0.182 | 99% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v3.2 | $0.259 | $0.800 | 95% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-exp | $0.270 | $0.410 | 96% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-v3.1-terminus | $0.270 | $1.00 | 94% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3.1 | $0.250 | $0.950 | 95% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-r1-0528 | $0.500 | $2.15 | 89% cheaper |
deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3-0324 | $0.290 | $1.14 | 94% cheaper |
Guides
- This week in Chinese AI: prices checked, two list prices that lie
- Chinese AI API prices, live, versus the latest Opus and Sol
- Call Chinese models without sending the prompt to the lab
- Use Chinese models in Claude Code: the base URLs we could verify
- Coding plans compared: GLM's credits, and the plans we would not price
- What a coding session costs: flash models, flagships, and the cache assumption
- DeepSeek API key: top up, then use the off-peak hours on purpose
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on OpenRouter: the cheap default, with the direct price beside it
- DeepSeek versus Claude: price on the snapshot, quality on the public boards
- Free Chinese AI apps: a short list that refuses fake prices
- Is it safe to use Chinese AI? A sourced risk matrix, not a slogan
- Is DeepSeek free? The app, the API, and the desktop installer
- OpenRouter versus direct: where the Chinese model is actually cheaper
- Paying for Chinese AI from abroad: what the docs show, and what they do not
- Run Qwen locally when the API price is not the constraint
- Qwen, DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi: which Chinese model for which job