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 does the new DeepSeek-V4 pricing go live?

The new time-of-day pricing takes effect at 16:00 UTC on August 16, 2026, for DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash.

How much more expensive are peak hours?

Peak rates are exactly 2× the off-peak rates. Versus current flat rates, off-peak output costs about 2.3–2.4× more, and peak output about 4.6–4.7× more.

DeepSeek-V4 API · time-of-day pricing

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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 API pricing. DeepSeek's new time-of-day billing makes every token exactly 2× more expensive during peak hours — this page shows which rate window you're in right now, when peak falls in your timezone, and the full off-peak vs peak price list against today's flat rates.

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

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 today's flat rates (DeepSeek first-party, as listed on OpenRouter). Effective 16:00 UTC, Aug 16 2026.

DeepSeek-V4-Flash

deepseek-v4-flash-0731 ↗

Rate	Today 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	Today 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 today's flat rate — today is 1×. Both charts share the same scale, so Pro's 12.1× peak cache-hit hike is exactly as big as it looks.

Today (flat)Off-peakPeak

DeepSeek-V4-Flash

Input · cache hit

$0.0028 1× today

$0.007 2.5×

$0.014 5×

Input · cache miss

$0.14 1× today

$0.22 1.6×

$0.44 3.1×

Output

$0.28 1× today

$0.66 2.4×

$1.32 4.7×

DeepSeek-V4-Pro

Input · cache hit

$0.003625 1× today

$0.022 6.1×

$0.044 12.1×

Input · cache miss

$0.435 1× today

$0.66 1.5×

$1.32 3×

Output

$0.87 1× today

$1.98 2.3×

$3.96 4.6×

Sources: DeepSeek-V4 API pricing announcement (effective 16:00 UTC, Aug 16 2026) · current 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.