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Even the price butcher now charges peak and off-peak rates: DeepSeek V4 Pro costs more when busy

Last updated 2026-08-20Editorial synthesis: signals connected before judgementNot a wire dump; facts, judgement, and unknowns are separated
Diagram showing DeepSeek V4 Pro API pricing split into peak and off-peak periods
Editorial diagram: V4 Pro API uses peak and off-peak rates, with off-peak at half the peak price; call timing becomes a cost variable.
Bottom line

DeepSeek V4 Pro GA introduced peak/off-peak API pricing: off-peak is half the peak rate, while peak output reaches $3.96 per million tokens. It is not simply abandoning low prices; it is pricing compute peaks into the bill.

DeepSeek V4 Pro GA introduced peak/off-peak API pricing: off-peak is half the peak rate, while peak output reaches $3.96 per million tokens. It is not simply abandoning low prices; it is pricing compute peaks into the bill.

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