Dev billing guide: Pay-per-token may undercut subscriptions
heypearlai · x · 2026-08-20
For builders, skipping subscriptions to pay per token is often cheaper. Claude offers a 90% discount on cached input hits. DeepSeek raised API prices yesterday; cached input for V4 Flash now costs $0.007-$0.014 per million tokens. While still very affordable, it is higher than the $0.0028 figure from last month. For light use, API costs can significantly undercut a $20 monthly plan.
Related event: How to Save on AI Models: Token Billing vs. Student Subscriptions(2 posts)→
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