What is the cost of DeepSeek V3 and DeepSeek R1 in 2026?

DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.14 per 1M input tokens ($0.014 when cached, a 90% discount) and $0.28 per 1M output tokens. DeepSeek-R1 (reasoning model) costs $0.55 per 1M input tokens ($0.14 cached) and $2.19 per 1M output tokens.

How does DeepSeek pricing compare to OpenAI GPT-4o?

DeepSeek-V3 is approximately 18x cheaper for input tokens and 35x cheaper for output tokens compared to OpenAI GPT-4o ($2.50 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens), offering massive margin improvements for SaaS applications.

How does prompt caching affect DeepSeek API expenses?

DeepSeek offers an automatic 90% discount on cached input prompts ($0.014/M tokens vs $0.14/M on V3). High-cache workloads like customer support bots and multi-turn coding assistants see up to 75-85% total billing reductions.

DeepSeek AI Token Cost Calculator: DeepSeek vs OpenAI 2026

Compare real-world API token pricing between DeepSeek-V3, DeepSeek-R1, GPT-4o, and Claude 3.5. Models 90% prompt caching savings, agent reasoning overhead, and actual production margins.

💡 Related AI Infrastructure Tools: Tokens to Words Converter • ChatGPT API Cost Calculator • LLM VRAM & KV Cache Calculator • Prompt Caching Optimizer

LLM Provider / Model (2026)	Standard Input / 1M	Cached Input / 1M	Output / 1M	Monthly Estimate*
DeepSeek-V3 (Flagship)	$0.14	$0.014 (-90%)	$0.28	—
DeepSeek-R1 (Reasoning)	$0.55	$0.14 (-75%)	$2.19	—
GPT-5-Nano / 4o-mini	$0.15	$0.075 (-50%)	$0.60	—
Claude 3.5 Haiku	$0.80	$0.08 (-90%)	$4.00	—
OpenAI GPT-4o (Standard)	$2.50	$1.25 (-50%)	$10.00	—
Claude 3.5 Sonnet	$3.00	$0.30 (-90%)	$15.00	—

*Estimates based on active token split and workload parameters chosen in the interactive calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does DeepSeek-V3 pricing compare to OpenAI GPT-4o?

DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.14 per 1M input tokens ($0.014 cached) and $0.28 per 1M output tokens. Compared to GPT-4o ($2.50 input / $10.00 output), DeepSeek-V3 is ~18x cheaper on input and ~35x cheaper on output generation.

What is DeepSeek's 90% prompt caching discount?

When your application reuses system prompts, long conversation histories, or RAG context, DeepSeek automatically charges $0.014 per million tokens on cached context—a 90% discount applied without manual server setup.

How does DeepSeek-R1 reasoning overhead affect costs?

DeepSeek-R1 ($0.55 input / $2.19 output per 1M) generates internal reasoning "chain-of-thought" tokens before delivering user responses. While this increases output volume by 30% to 80%, total cost remains over 80% cheaper than OpenAI o1/o3 reasoning models.