Pricing and calculator verification: Updated August 16, 2026. DeepSeek’s peak/off-peak schedule is now active. The calculator resolves the applicable current period from the UTC request time or lets you select a current or historical matrix explicitly. The original August 3 test vectors and live usage evidence remain frozen at the rates in effect on their test date.

Use this free DeepSeek API cost calculator to estimate spend per request, day, month, or year for deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-pro. Enter input tokens, output tokens, request volume, and an observed or expected cache-hit rate. For the complete rate table and model-selection guidance, see our DeepSeek API pricing guide.

The most reliable estimate comes from a real API response’s usage object. It separates cache-hit input, cache-miss input, and completion tokens, so the calculator can apply the correct rate to each billing item.

Current pricing schedule: DeepSeek applies peak rates during 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC and off-peak rates at all other times. The historical matrix remains available only for requests before August 16, 2026 16:00 UTC.

Model and pricing

DeepSeek model

Pricing period Automatic mode resolves the official schedule from the UTC request time below.

Example request time (UTC)

The field is interpreted as UTC, not the browser's local timezone.

Tokens per request

Cache-hit input tokens

Cache-miss input tokens

Output tokens

Validation uses DeepSeek's 1,000,000-token context limit and 384,000-token maximum output. Input plus output cannot exceed the context limit.

Workload volume

Requests in selected period

Volume period

Example workload

Import API usage JSON

Paste a DeepSeek response usage object

Estimated cost

Interactive mode resolves the official rate from the selected UTC request time.

Per request$0.00017136

Per day$0.17

30-day month$5.14

365-day year$62.55

30-day estimate = daily cost × 30. Yearly estimate = daily cost × 365.

Per-request breakdown

Cache-hit input: $0.00000336
Cache-miss input: $0.00004200
Output: $0.00012600

Worked DeepSeek API cost examples

These examples are rendered in the page HTML, so the method and nonzero results remain available without JavaScript.

Workload	Model	Pricing period	Hit / miss / output tokens	Requests/day	Per request	365-day year
Customer support	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Current off-peak	1,200 / 300 / 450	1,000	$0.00037140	$135.56
Customer support	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Current peak	1,200 / 300 / 450	1,000	$0.00074280	$271.12
Customer support	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Historical through Aug 16, 15:59 UTC	1,200 / 300 / 450	1,000	$0.00017136	$62.55
RAG assistant	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Current off-peak	8,000 / 2,000 / 1,000	100	$0.00347600	$126.87
RAG assistant	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Current peak	8,000 / 2,000 / 1,000	100	$0.00695200	$253.75
RAG assistant	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Historical through Aug 16, 15:59 UTC	8,000 / 2,000 / 1,000	100	$0.00176900	$64.57
Coding agent	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Current off-peak	12,000 / 3,000 / 2,200	50	$0.00660000	$120.45
Coding agent	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Current peak	12,000 / 3,000 / 2,200	50	$0.01	$240.90
Coding agent	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Historical through Aug 16, 15:59 UTC	12,000 / 3,000 / 2,200	50	$0.00326250	$59.54

Calculation method and assumptions

Cost = (cache-hit input tokens × cache-hit rate + cache-miss input tokens × cache-miss rate + output tokens × output rate) ÷ 1,000,000.

All prices are USD per one million tokens.
Daily mode multiplies the daily result by 30 for a planning month and by 365 for the yearly estimate.
Monthly mode treats the entered volume as a 30-day month, divides it by 30 for an average day, and multiplies it by 12 for the yearly estimate.
The selected rate is applied to every request in the projection. Split traffic into separate peak and off-peak estimates when request timing is mixed.
Taxes, exchange rates, account credits, retries, failed requests, network costs, and later price changes are not included.
Actual cache hits are determined by DeepSeek and may differ from your forecast.

Check the official DeepSeek models and pricing page before making a purchasing decision.

How DeepSeek API Cost Is Calculated

DeepSeek bills input and output tokens separately. Input tokens are split between the lower cache-hit rate and the regular cache-miss rate. The calculator uses this equation:

request cost =
  (cache-hit input tokens / 1,000,000 x cache-hit price)
+ (cache-miss input tokens / 1,000,000 x cache-miss price)
+ (output tokens / 1,000,000 x output price)

Cache-hit input: prompt tokens DeepSeek reports in prompt_cache_hit_tokens.
Cache-miss input: prompt tokens DeepSeek reports in prompt_cache_miss_tokens.
Output: generated completion tokens, including billable reasoning-token usage where applicable.
Volume: per-request cost multiplied by the number of requests. This page uses 30 days for a monthly projection and 365 days for a yearly projection.

Current Pricing Schedule

DeepSeek applies peak rates during 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC and off-peak rates at all other times. Peak rates are twice the current off-peak rates. The historical matrix remains available only for reproducing requests billed before August 16, 2026 at 16:00 UTC.

Each estimate applies one selected rate period to all entered volume. For mixed traffic, calculate the peak and off-peak portions separately and add them. Auto starts with the current UTC time and resolves the entered request time; it is not a forecast of your future traffic distribution. Recheck the official DeepSeek pricing page before setting a production budget.

Worked DeepSeek API Cost Examples

The first three static examples preserve the rates in effect on August 3, 2026 and remain readable without JavaScript. They are historical pre-cutover calculations, not estimates at today’s current off-peak or peak rates.

Example 1: Flash Chatbot With a 50% Cache-Hit Rate

Assume 800 input tokens, 400 output tokens, a 50% cache-hit rate, and 2,000 requests per day:

Cache-hit input: 400 / 1,000,000 x $0.0028 = $0.00000112
Cache-miss input: 400 / 1,000,000 x $0.14 = $0.000056
Output: 400 / 1,000,000 x $0.28 = $0.000112
Total: $0.00016912 per request, $0.33824 per day, $10.1472 per 30-day month, or $123.4576 per 365-day year.

Example 2: The Same Workload on V4 Pro

Using the same 800 input tokens, 400 output tokens, 50% cache-hit rate, and 2,000 requests per day, V4 Pro costs $0.00052345 per request. That projects to $31.407 per 30-day month or $382.1185 per 365-day year. The comparison isolates the price difference; it does not measure whether Pro’s output quality reduces retries or downstream work.

Example 3: How Caching Changes a Flash RAG Budget

For 10,000 input tokens, 1,000 output tokens, and 100,000 requests per month, a 0% hit-rate estimate is $168.00 per month. A theoretical 100% input cache-hit estimate is $30.80 per month, a difference of $137.20. This is a planning boundary, not a promised saving: DeepSeek documents caching as best-effort, and only persisted matching prefixes count as hits. Use observed usage fields instead of assuming 100%. Read our DeepSeek context caching guide for prefix design and measurement.

Current-Rate Verification Examples

These deterministic examples use the current off-peak and peak matrices. Peak values are exactly twice the corresponding current off-peak values.

Vector	Off-peak	Peak
Flash: 1K cache-miss input + 500 output	$0.0005500000	$0.0011000000
Flash: 1K cache-hit input + 500 output	$0.0003370000	$0.0006740000
Pro: 1K input, 50% cache hit + 500 output	$0.0013310000	$0.0026620000
Pro: 10K input, 80% cache hit + 1K output	$0.0034760000	$0.0069520000
Flash: 800 input, 50% cache hit + 400 output × 60K requests	$21.2880	$42.5760

Independent arithmetic vectors for the official current off-peak and peak rate matrices.

Current DeepSeek V4 Token Rates

USD per one million tokens, verified against DeepSeek's official pricing page on August 16, 2026. Peak hours are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC; all other hours are off-peak.

Model	Pricing period	Cache-hit input	Cache-miss input	Output
DeepSeek V4 Flash	Current off-peak	$0.007	$0.22	$0.66
DeepSeek V4 Flash	Current peak	$0.014	$0.44	$1.32
DeepSeek V4 Flash	Historical through Aug 16, 15:59 UTC	$0.0028	$0.14	$0.28
DeepSeek V4 Pro	Current off-peak	$0.022	$0.66	$1.98
DeepSeek V4 Pro	Current peak	$0.044	$1.32	$3.96
DeepSeek V4 Pro	Historical through Aug 16, 15:59 UTC	$0.003625	$0.435	$0.87

Limits: 1,000,000-token context and 384,000-token maximum output for both models. Prices can change; verify the official DeepSeek pricing page.

Original Deterministic Calculator Test Matrix

We created the following frozen arithmetic vectors for the August 3, 2026 calculator review. Each expected result was recomputed independently from the published price table. This validates calculator math; it is not a claim about a live API invoice, model quality, latency, or cache availability.

Test vector	Model	Input / output	Cache hit	Expected cost per request	Check
F-01: no cache	V4 Flash	1,000 / 500	0%	$0.0002800000	Exact formula match
F-02: full input hit	V4 Flash	1,000 / 500	100%	$0.0001428000	Exact formula match
P-01: mixed cache	V4 Pro	1,000 / 500	50%	$0.0006543125	Exact formula match
P-02: RAG profile	V4 Pro	10,000 / 1,000	80%	$0.0017690000	Exact formula match
V-01: volume projection	V4 Flash	800 / 400	50%	$10.1472 per 60,000 requests	30-day month

Frozen regression vectors using the rates in effect on August 3, 2026. These values are intentionally preserved as historical evidence.

Original Live DeepSeek API Cost Test

On August 3, 2026, we ran an English-only synthetic cache test against the live DeepSeek API. The reusable prompt contained 1,580 input tokens, and each response contained 8 output tokens. We sent the same prompt twice to V4 Flash, then sent it once to V4 Pro. The table uses the exact token counters returned by the API and calculates cost from the official rates in effect on that test date.

Live request	Model	Input / output	Cache hit / miss	Calculated cost	Observed result
First Flash request	`deepseek-v4-flash`	1,580 / 8	0 / 1,580	$0.0002234400	Exact expected text returned
Repeated Flash request	`deepseek-v4-flash`	1,580 / 8	1,536 / 44	$0.0000127008	94.32% lower calculated cost
First Pro request	`deepseek-v4-pro`	1,580 / 8	0 / 1,580	$0.0006942600	Exact expected text returned

Live API evidence captured August 3, 2026. API keys, account identifiers, and balance information were excluded. Calculated cost is an independent estimate from returned usage fields, not a provider invoice.

The repeated Flash request demonstrates why real cache counters matter: 1,536 of 1,580 prompt tokens were reported as cache hits, while 44 remained cache misses. The calculator reproduced all three costs before display rounding. This test confirms the formula and usage-field handling for this workload; it does not guarantee the same cache-hit rate for another prompt, account, region, or time.

Estimate Tokens Before a Request

Paste text to get a rough token estimate and uncached input cost. For billing, use the token counts returned by the DeepSeek API.

Model

Pricing period

Example request time (UTC)

Estimated tokens0Uncached input cost$0.000000

Interactive mode resolves the official rate from the selected UTC request time.

Text to estimate

This browser-only estimate uses characters and words; it does not upload or store your text.

Use the counter above for a quick pre-request token estimate. DeepSeek’s documentation gives a general approximation of one English character being about 0.3 token, but tokenization varies by model and content. For billing reconciliation, use the token fields returned by the API rather than this text estimate.

Calculator Limits and Assumptions

Currency and units: US dollars per 1 million tokens, before taxes, credits, grants, account-level adjustments, or provider rounding.
Time periods: monthly projections use 30 days; yearly projections use 365 days. A direct monthly request count takes priority when the calculator provides that input.
Token source: typed token values and a pasted API usage object are more useful than word or character estimates. Log prompt_cache_hit_tokens, prompt_cache_miss_tokens, and completion_tokens.
Cache behavior: the cache-hit percentage is an estimate unless it comes from observed responses. Caching applies to matching input prefixes, works on a best-effort basis, and does not discount output tokens.
Model limits: the official table lists a 1M context length and a maximum output of 384K for both V4 models. A cost estimate does not guarantee that a payload, endpoint, feature, or requested output is valid.
Unmodeled usage: system prompts, tool schemas, conversation history, retries, failed application attempts that still generated tokens, and reasoning tokens can increase real usage.
Pricing period: each estimate uses one selected matrix. Auto starts with current UTC and resolves the entered request time, including the August 16 cutover and published daily peak windows. For mixed traffic, calculate each period separately.

Methodology and Verification

We rechecked DeepSeek’s official Models & Pricing, Token & Token Usage, and Context Caching documentation on August 16, 2026. We verified the current off-peak and peak matrices, UTC daily windows, model limits, and calculator boundary behavior. The historical pre-cutover matrix, original August 3 vectors, and live request costs remain frozen. We did not use an account balance, invoice, promotion, or tax calculation.

For production monitoring, record the provider-returned usage fields for every request, group them by model and pricing period, then reconcile derived estimates with your DeepSeek billing records. Our DeepSeek token usage fields guide explains the counters; the DeepSeek API guide covers setup and request structure; and the DeepSeek API updates tracker records model and pricing changes.

DeepSeek API Cost Calculator FAQ

How much does the DeepSeek API cost?

Current Flash rates are $0.007/$0.22/$0.66 off-peak and $0.014/$0.44/$1.32 at peak; current Pro rates are $0.022/$0.66/$1.98 off-peak and $0.044/$1.32/$3.96 at peak, per 1M cache-hit input, cache-miss input, and output tokens. The calculator retains the earlier matrix only for historical requests before August 16, 2026 at 16:00 UTC.

How do I calculate DeepSeek API cost?

Multiply cache-hit input, cache-miss input, and output tokens by their respective per-token prices, then add the three amounts. Multiply that request total by expected volume for a daily, monthly, or yearly projection.

Is DeepSeek V4 Flash cheaper than V4 Pro?

Yes, Flash has lower published rates for cache hits, cache misses, and output. Pro may still be economical for a workload if its stronger result reduces retries or downstream review, so test cost per successful task rather than token price alone.

Does DeepSeek context caching reduce API cost?

It can reduce input cost when a request fully matches a persisted prompt-prefix unit. DeepSeek enables caching by default but describes it as best-effort, so use the returned hit and miss token fields instead of assuming a perfect hit rate.

Does this calculator include DeepSeek peak pricing?

Yes. Auto starts with current UTC and resolves the entered request time. You can also select the historical pre-cutover, current off-peak, or current peak matrix explicitly. Peak windows are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC.

How can I get an accurate DeepSeek token count?

Use the usage object returned by a real API response. Text, word, and character conversions are planning approximations and can differ by language, formatting, code, and model tokenizer.

What is the difference between this calculator and the pricing page?

The pricing page is the site’s detailed rate and model reference. This page converts those rates into workload-specific estimates using your token mix, cache behavior, and request volume.

Is this an official DeepSeek calculator?

No. Chat-Deep.ai is an independent guide and is not affiliated with DeepSeek. This tool provides estimates from published documentation; the official platform’s usage and billing records remain authoritative for your account.

Sources and Related Guides

DeepSeek Models & Pricing — current model limits, UTC peak windows, and published off-peak and peak rate matrices.
DeepSeek Context Caching — cache persistence, matching rules, usage fields, and best-effort limitations.
DeepSeek Token & Token Usage — token estimates and provider-returned usage guidance.
DeepSeek API Pricing — detailed rate comparison and purchasing context.
DeepSeek Context Caching Explained — practical cache-friendly prompt design.
DeepSeek Token Usage Fields — logging and interpreting the usage object.
DeepSeek API Updates — current changes that can affect estimates.
DeepSeek API Guide — authentication, models, endpoints, and request examples.

Last verified: August 16, 2026. Pricing is time-sensitive. Recheck the official source before making a purchasing or production decision.