What are the DeepSeek API peak hours?

Peak hours are 01:00-04:00 UTC and 06:00-10:00 UTC. All other hours (17 of 24) are billed at off-peak rates.

When did the new DeepSeek-V4 pricing go live?

The time-of-day pricing took effect at 16:00 UTC on August 16, 2026, for DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash, and has been live since.

How much more expensive are peak hours?

Peak rates are exactly 2× the off-peak rates. Versus the old flat rates that applied until Aug 16, 2026, off-peak output costs about 2.3 to 2.4 times more, and peak output about 4.6 to 4.7 times more.

DeepSeek-V4 API · time-of-day pricing

DeepSeek API pricing status: OFF-PEAK

Checking the clock…

New pricing goes live in· · ·16:00 UTC · Sat, Aug 16 2026

A live tracker for DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash time-of-day API pricing, where every token costs exactly 2× during peak hours.

Read the full breakdown of the change

Your day, priced

Peak hours are 01:00-04:00 & 06:00-10:00 UTC, 7 hours a day. The other 17 hours are off-peak, shown here on your clock.

Peak · 2× off-peak ratesOff-peakNow

Add peak hours to your calendarTwo daily events in UTC. Your calendar shows them in local time.

Peak hours around the world

The same two UTC windows, on everyone's wall clock. The white marker is this exact moment.

The new price list

USD per 1M tokens. Peak is exactly 2× off-peak. Multipliers compare against the old flat rates that applied until the switch (DeepSeek first-party, as listed on OpenRouter). In effect since 16:00 UTC, Aug 16, 2026.

DeepSeek-V4-Flash

deepseek-v4-flash-0731 ↗

Rate	Old flat	Off-peak	Peak
Input · cache hit	$0.0028	$0.007 2.5×	$0.014 5×
Input · cache miss	$0.14	$0.22 1.6×	$0.44 3.1×
Output	$0.28	$0.66 2.4×	$1.32 4.7×

DeepSeek-V4-Pro

deepseek-v4-pro-0813 ↗

Rate	Old flat	Off-peak	Peak
Input · cache hit	$0.003625	$0.022 6.1×	$0.044 12.1×
Input · cache miss	$0.435	$0.66 1.5×	$1.32 3×
Output	$0.87	$1.98 2.3×	$3.96 4.6×

The hike, visualized

Bar length is the multiple of the old flat rate, so the old price is 1×. Both charts share the same scale, so Pro's 12.1× peak cache-hit hike is exactly as big as it looks.

Old flat rateOff-peakPeak

DeepSeek-V4-Flash

Input · cache hit

$0.0028 1× old

$0.007 2.5×

$0.014 5×

Input · cache miss

$0.14 1× old

$0.22 1.6×

$0.44 3.1×

Output

$0.28 1× old

$0.66 2.4×

$1.32 4.7×

DeepSeek-V4-Pro

Input · cache hit

$0.003625 1× old

$0.022 6.1×

$0.044 12.1×

Input · cache miss

$0.435 1× old

$0.66 1.5×

$1.32 3×

Output

$0.87 1× old

$1.98 2.3×

$3.96 4.6×

Sources: DeepSeek-V4 API pricing announcement (in effect since 16:00 UTC, Aug 16, 2026) · old flat rates from V4-Flash and V4-Pro on OpenRouter. Not affiliated with DeepSeek. Always confirm against the official price sheet before betting the invoice on it.