DeepSeek Costs 1/3 of GPT Luna for Coding: A Practical Token & Expense Breakdown
auto_off · reddit · 2026-07-31
The author breaks down the real-world costs of using the latest small models (DeepSeek Flash and OpenAI Luna) for programming tasks.
- Cost Comparison: For 7 billion tokens a month, Luna costs $250, whereas DeepSeek is only $75 (1/3 of Luna's price).
- Token Distribution: Typical coding usage consists of 93-95% cached input, 2-4% non-cached input, and 1-2% output tokens.
- Why DeepSeek is Cheaper: DeepSeek Flash charges about 1/7th of Luna's price for cached tokens and 1/5th for output tokens.
- Budget Option: For tiny budgets ($10-20/month), tools like opencode go offer a decent alternative.
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