Pricing Guide
DeepSeek Pricing (2026) - The Cheapest Capable AI Model
Last updated: February 2026
Free (Web & App)
$0/month
- Unlimited access to DeepSeek V3.1
- DeepSeek R1 reasoning mode
- No signup required for basic use
- File upload and analysis
- Web search integration
API Pricing
Input
$0.27 per 1M tokens (DeepSeek V3.1)
Output
$1.10 per 1M tokens (DeepSeek V3.1)
DeepSeek R1 costs $0.55/$2.19 per 1M tokens. Cache hits reduce input costs by 90%. By far the cheapest frontier-level API available.
Our Take
DeepSeek is unbeatable on price. The free web app has no real limits, and API pricing is 10-50x cheaper than competitors. Quality is surprisingly close to GPT-4.1 and Claude Sonnet. The main trade-off is occasional latency and China-based data processing.
Best for: Budget-conscious developers, high-volume API usage, and coding tasks
Why Pay for Multiple Subscriptions?
Council gives you access to all major AI models in one place. Compare answers side-by-side without juggling subscriptions.