DeepSeek Officially Announces Price Hike, Describing It as "Significant"!

On August 6, DeepSeek released an announcement stating: "We plan to broadly increase the pricing of DeepSeek API services in the near future, with a significant expected rise. Please arrange your usage accordingly. Specific details will be subject to formal notification."

This comes just about three weeks after DeepSeek first introduced its peak-off-peak differential pricing mechanism in mid-July. The shift from peak-off-peak traffic diversion to a broad price hike suggests that the pricing logic may have moved from "regulating computing load" to a comprehensive re-anchoring of the value center. The announcement did not provide specific figures for the price increase or a timeline, merely advising users to "arrange your usage accordingly." For downstream developers relying on DeepSeek's low-cost API to build applications, this means their cost models will need to be recalculated.

In mid-July, DeepSeek first introduced peak-off-peak pricing for its V4 series: API prices during peak hours (9:00–12:00 and 14:00–18:00 daily) were raised to twice the off-peak rate. The standard pricing for V4 Pro was $0.87 per million output tokens, while V4 Flash was priced at $0.28. At the time, Goldman Sachs estimated that after the introduction of the peak-off-peak mechanism, the comprehensive average price would be approximately $0.35 per million tokens for V4 Pro and $0.12 for V4 Flash. The market generally interpreted the peak-off-peak pricing as a signal of refined operations rather than a fundamental shift in pricing direction.

The rapid transition from peak-off-peak pricing to a broad price hike is driven by clear demand-side factors. OpenCode, an open-source AI Agent tool, disclosed that the daily usage of the official DeepSeek V4 Flash version on its platform has reached 8 trillion tokens—with 5 trillion coming from free quotas and 3 trillion from paid plans. For comparison, OpenRouter, a large model routing platform integrating over 400 models, processes an average of about 6.6 trillion tokens daily across its entire platform. The single-day consumption of one DeepSeek model through a single entry point exceeds the total volume of OpenRouter, which hosts more than 400 models.

Data from the Vercel platform further confirms this trend: DeepSeek's token processing volume has risen to rank first on the platform, with V4 Flash processing approximately 5.3 trillion tokens per week. As Agent tasks evolve from "single Q&A interactions" to "continuous calls lasting hours with dozens of tool interactions," the tsunami of usage driven by extremely low prices is forcing a reset in pricing.

Liang Wenfeng's Pricing Logic Faces Realization

Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, detailed the company's pricing philosophy during an investor exchange meeting in July: API pricing is based on a reasonable profit model where "the cost of purchasing a batch of equipment in the market is recovered within ten months." He also pointed out that user demand in the current price range is "almost inelastic"—"even if the price doubles, the difference in token consumption is negligible."

This judgment provides a direct basis for the price hike: if demand is insensitive to price, raising prices can significantly boost revenue without substantially sacrificing usage volume. Liang Wenfeng also stated that the company is not pursuing "profit maximization" but rather "earning only a reasonable return."

DeepSeek-V4-Pro Official Version to Be Released Soon

On July 31, DeepSeek announced that the official version of the DeepSeek-V4-Flash API had launched for public beta testing.

This marks the long-awaited official launch of DeepSeek's stable version. It is understood that the model structure and size of DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 remain consistent with the DeepSeek-V4-Flash-preview, with only post-training conducted.

However, DeepSeek specifically noted that the current public beta is limited to the API (interface endpoint). The latest capabilities are not yet available on the commonly used App and web interfaces. The official version of DeepSeek-V4-Pro will be released as soon as possible.

Commercialization Process Accelerating Comprehensively

As the price hike announcement was released, DeepSeek was simultaneously advancing several commercial milestones. The company's ARR has reached $400 million to $500 million, with the gross margin of its flagship V4 model exceeding 50%. According to reports citing multiple trading sources, DeepSeek has restarted its second round of financing, planning to raise 50 billion yuan with a pre-money valuation of approximately 500 billion yuan, aiming to complete signing by late August—this round of financing had been suddenly paused in late July. Previously, the company had completed its first round of external financing totaling approximately 51 billion yuan.

Regarding the competitive landscape of the industry, DeepSeek's broad price hike implies an overall upward shift in the industry's price baseline. The specific adjustment plan awaits formal notification, with key subsequent variables being whether the magnitude of the increase exceeds market expectations and whether the free quota will be adjusted simultaneously.