DeepSeek Pricing & Cheaper Ways to Pay
Chat app is $0; the API bills per million tokens, cheaper off-peak
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What DeepSeek costs
We don't know of a live discount, trial or promo for DeepSeek right now. These are its normal prices.
- DeepSeek chat app$0/month
Consumer chat at chat.deepseek.com, separate from API billing
- deepseek-flash input (cache miss)$0.15 per 1M tokens
Off-peak rate; $0.30 in peak hours
- deepseek-flash output$0.60 per 1M tokens
Off-peak rate; $1.20 in peak hours
- deepseek-v4-pro input (cache miss)$0.66 per 1M tokens
Off-peak rate; $1.32 in peak hours
- deepseek-v4-pro output$1.98 per 1M tokens
Off-peak rate; $3.96 in peak hours
Not in the US?
What changes where you live.
- Outside the US
- Same USD price
What DeepSeek does
DeepSeek is the free AI chat app and API from the Chinese lab of the same name, built on its open-weight V4 family of models. The consumer chat at chat.deepseek.com has no Plus or Pro paywall at all: everything is free, with fair-use throttling as the only limit. The API is priced far below OpenAI and Anthropic, and the underlying V4 Flash and V4 Pro weights are released under MIT license for anyone who wants to self-host.
- Free, unlimited chat at chat.deepseek.com with no subscription tier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash and V4 Pro model access
- 1-million-token context window on V4 Flash
- MIT-licensed open weights available for self-hosting
- Official iOS and Android apps
- API with prompt-caching discounts for repeated context
Alternatives to DeepSeek
What else does the job, and what it costs.
| Tool | Why people look at it | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Mistral Le Chat | A fixed monthly price instead of metered API billing, with a student price | Price: $0 plan, Pro from $14.99/month |
| ChatGPT Plus | A more polished app with images, voice and plugins, for a flat fee | Price: from $20/month |
| Claude | Stronger coding and long-document work, at a higher price per token | Price: from $20/month |
| Google Gemini | Worth it if you want the assistant inside Gmail, Docs and Drive | Price: from $19.99/month |
Questions about DeepSeek
What is the cheapest way to use DeepSeek?
The chat app at chat.deepseek.com costs $0. On the API, deepseek-flash is the cheapest model, from $0.15 per million input tokens off-peak.
Is there a student plan or discount?
No student plan is listed. The built-in saving is off-peak API pricing, which DeepSeek applies automatically outside its listed peak hours (UTC, weekdays).
Is DeepSeek a subscription?
No. The API is pay-as-you-go from a prepaid USD balance, with no monthly or yearly plan and no stated country restrictions on price.
DeepSeek vs. alternatives
Prices side by side
Guides featuring DeepSeek
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