DeepSeek adds peak/off-peak pricing: V4 Pro output $3.96 at peak, 2x old price off-peak

AccBalanced · x · 2026-08-17

Starting 16:00 UTC today, DeepSeek applies time-based pricing to V4 Pro: peak hours are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, with every other hour off-peak. Output pricing per 1M tokens is $3.96 at peak and $1.98 off-peak, versus a flat $0.87 before — even the 50% off-peak discount still means over 2x the old price. The author suggests running batch jobs outside those 7 peak hours.

Related event: DeepSeek Raises V4 API Prices by Up to 1100%, Adds Peak/Off-Peak Pricing(5 posts)→

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