DeepSeek made its name offering far cheaper AI services than its pricier western competitors, but the cheap ride appears to be at an end. With the announcement of its latest model, the company is raising its API pricing fourfold to allocate resources more reasonably through a new peak and off-peak pricing structure.

Starting on August 16, the DeepSeek V4 Pro model will cost $3.96 for 1 million output tokens at peak hours, more than four times the current rate of $0.87. During off-peak hours, it will cost half that amount at $1.98. Meanwhile, the DeepSeek V4 Flash model will cost $1.32 during peak hours and $0.66 during off-peak.

Even with these hikes, DeepSeek remains more affordable than some competitors. For comparison, Moonshot's Kimi K3 costs $15 per 1 million output tokens, while OpenAI's most advanced model, GPT-5.6 Sol, costs $30 for 1 million output tokens.