DeepSeek's Tiny Model Size Yields 40x Opus Throughput, Enabling Low Prices
gaganghotra_ · x · 2026-08-02
Dispelling rumors of market-dumping, Jun Song explains that DeepSeek's highly profitable, low-cost API is driven by its ridiculously small model size relative to performance.
- Size Advantage: The model is 10x smaller than Claude Opus and 5x smaller than Sonnet while maintaining strong capabilities.
- Compute Efficiency: Workloads that previously required an 8-chip node can now run on a single chip at high speeds.
- Massive Throughput: By multi-serving users on a single chip efficiently, it can handle roughly 40x more traffic than Opus using the exact same compute footprint.
This extreme size-to-performance ratio is the core reason they can maintain profitability at aggressively low prices.
Related event: DeepSeek's Low-Priced API Profitability Driven by Ultra-Small Model(2 posts)→
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