DeepSeek API review

DeepSeek's API is the value pick for teams that want long context without paying frontier prices. The deepseek-flash model costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens on a cache miss and $1.20 per 1M output tokens at peak, and off-peak rates are half that. Cache hits drop input to $0.006 per 1M tokens at peak and $0.003 off-peak. Both deepseek-flash and deepseek-v4-pro support a 1M-token context and up to 384K output, with JSON output, tool calls and a thinking mode. Base URLs in OpenAI and Anthropic formats let existing SDKs and agent tools point at DeepSeek with a config change. Instead of token-per-minute tiers, DeepSeek publishes concurrency limits of 2,500 for Flash and 500 for V4 Pro. The catches: peak hours fall on weekday mornings UTC, so bills depend on timing; V4 Pro has no vision support; and the lineup is small next to OpenAI or Google.

Who it is for

Cost-focused teams that want 1M-token context at some of the lowest published token prices.

Price

Pay as you go; deepseek-flash costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens (cache miss) at peak and $0.15 off-peak.

1M INPUT TOKENS (CACHE MISS) OFF-PEAK $0.15 $0.66 PEAK $0.3 $1.32
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 7, 2026.

Key features

• deepseek-flash and deepseek-v4-pro with 1M context and up to 384K output
• Off-peak rates at half the peak price
• Cache-hit input from $0.003 per 1M tokens off-peak
• OpenAI and Anthropic compatible base URLs
• JSON output, tool calls and thinking mode

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Very low prices, especially on cache hits and off-peak hours
• Strength: Drop-in endpoints for OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs
• Strength: Concurrency limits of 2,500 for Flash and 500 for V4 Pro
• Weakness: Peak and off-peak pricing makes bills harder to predict
• Weakness: Vision is not supported on deepseek-v4-pro
• Weakness: A small model lineup compared with larger vendors

Key facts

• deepseek-flash input (cache miss): $0.30 peak, $0.15 off-peak per 1M tokens
• deepseek-flash output: $1.20 peak, $0.60 off-peak per 1M tokens
• Context length: 1M tokens, max output 384K
• Concurrency limit: 2,500 (Flash), 500 (V4 Pro)

Where it ranks

DeepSeek API is No. 4 in our Best LLM APIs verdict.