How much does DeepSeek API cost?

DeepSeek API costs $0.28 per 1M input tokens (cache miss), $0.028 per 1M input tokens (cache hit), and $0.42 per 1M output tokens. Both deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner use the same DeepSeek-V3.2 model at the same price.

How does DeepSeek API pricing compare to other providers?

DeepSeek-V3.2 is one of the most affordable frontier-class APIs available. At $0.28 per 1M input tokens (cache miss) and $0.42 per 1M output tokens, it is significantly lower than most competing models. With context caching enabled, input costs drop to $0.028 per 1M tokens — a 90% discount. Use the comparison table on this page for current side-by-side pricing.

What is DeepSeek context caching?

DeepSeek caches repeated prefixes on a best-effort basis, calculated in 64-token increments. When a request shares the same prefix as a previous one, those cached input tokens cost only $0.028 per 1M tokens — a 90% discount compared to the $0.28 cache miss price. This works automatically with no configuration needed.

What is the difference between deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner?

Both use DeepSeek-V3.2 at the same price. deepseek-chat (non-thinking mode) is for general tasks with 8K max output. deepseek-reasoner (thinking mode) supports chain-of-thought reasoning with 64K max output, better for math, logic, and code.

Does DeepSeek offer free API credits?

Yes, DeepSeek provides 5 million free tokens to new users upon registration. No credit card is required. The free chat at chat.deepseek.com is also unlimited with no subscription.

How do I calculate my DeepSeek API costs?

Use the formula: Cost = (input_tokens / 1,000,000 × input_price) + (output_tokens / 1,000,000 × output_price). Factor in cache hit rate for input tokens to get a more accurate estimate. Our calculator above does this automatically.

DeepSeek API Cost Calculator

Estimate DeepSeek API costs before you build. This calculator helps you forecast per-request, daily, monthly, and yearly spend for both deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner using current DeepSeek-V3.2 API pricing, including cache-hit discounts.

Both API models currently use the same published token rates, but your final bill still depends on workload shape—especially input size, output length, and how much repeated context is reused from cache. Use it to compare chat-style requests with reasoning-heavy workflows before you ship.

Model Non-thinking mode — general tasks, classification, summarization

Input Tokens per Request

Output Tokens per Request

Cache Hit Rate: 50%

0% (No Caching) 100% (Full Cache)

Caching applies to repeated prefixes only, is best-effort, and is calculated in 64-token increments. Learn more

Requests per Day

Requests per Month

Estimated Costs

Per Request $0.000

Daily Cost $0.00

Monthly Cost $0.00

Yearly Cost $0.00

Cost Breakdown per Request

Input (Cache Hit) $0.000

Input (Cache Miss) $0.000

Output $0.000

Total per Request $0.000

Cache-hit input is billed at a 90% discount versus cache-miss input. You save $0.000/mo with your current cache rate.

All prices per 1 million tokens (USD). Last verified: April 1, 2026 — Source: DeepSeek Models & Pricing | DeepSeek Platform

Model	Input (Cache Hit)	Input (Cache Miss)	Output	Context	Max Output
DeepSeek-V3.2 (Chat) Non-thinking mode — general tasks, classification, summarization	$0.028	$0.28	$0.42	128K	8K
DeepSeek-V3.2 (Reasoner) Thinking mode — complex math, logic, code tasks	$0.028	$0.28	$0.42	128K	64K

💡 Cache Hit Discount: DeepSeek caches repeated prefixes on a best-effort basis, calculated in 64-token increments. When a request's prefix matches a cached segment, those input tokens cost only $0.028/1M — a 90% discount vs. cache miss pricing. See official caching guide

DeepSeek-V3.2 (Chat)

JSON Output
Tool Calls
Chat Prefix
FIM Completion

DeepSeek-V3.2 (Reasoner)

JSON Output
Tool Calls
Chat Prefix
Chain-of-Thought

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0 Est. Tokens

$0.000 Input Cost

Token count is an approximation (~3.3 characters per token for English, per DeepSeek's tokenization guide). Actual tokenization may vary by language and content type.

Need setup help? Read our DeepSeek API guide. Need the bigger picture? Start with our main DeepSeek AI guide.

DeepSeek API Cost Calculator