DeepSeek warns of a substantial API price hike, ending its price war
The second increase in a month. V4-Flash still bills $0.14/$0.28 per million tokens today, with no new rate or date set — so lock in cheap inference while it lasts.
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The notice, and what it doesn't say
DeepSeek told API users a price increase is coming “soon” and could be “substantial” — but published no new rates and no effective date. Treat any DeepSeek-priced cost model as provisional until the real numbers land.
Why the price war is ending
DeepSeek says its ultra-low pricing is no longer sustainable after demand surged — V4-Flash reportedly processed about 8 trillion tokens in a single day on Aug 1. The era of near-free DeepSeek inference is closing.
Second move in under a month
This follows the peak/off-peak surge pricing DeepSeek rolled out in mid-July. Two changes this close together read as a structural repricing, not a one-off tweak — so plan for more, not less.
What today still costs, and what to do
V4-Flash is $0.14 in / $0.28 out per million tokens right now. If DeepSeek anchors your margins, cache aggressively and price-test open-weight fallbacks you can self-host at a fixed cost before the new rates hit.