DeepSeek V3.1 API Pricing
DeepSeek · context window 164K · prices updated 2026-09-29
Where DeepSeek V3.1 sits on price
At $0.95 per million output tokens, DeepSeek V3.1 is a mid tier model — 2.3× cheaper than the median output price of $2.20, which puts it cheaper than 70% and pricier than 30% of the models we track. It sits 7th cheapest of the 15 DeepSeek models we track. Output costs 3.8× input, the usual spread — trim both, starting with the answer length.
Cached input is 48% cheaper. On an input-heavy workload you need roughly a 52% cache-hit rate to take 25% off the input line — reachable for chatbots and agents that resend the same system prompt and history.
What real workloads cost on DeepSeek V3.1
These three workloads are the ones teams actually run on a mid-priced model — a $0.95/1M model is not bought for the same job as one ten times the price.
| Workload | Per request | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win. | $0.0026 | $38.70 |
| Document pipeline — 10K docs/day (3K in / 500 out) Batch-friendly: no user waiting, so a ~50% batch discount usually applies. | $0.0012 | $368 |
| Small app — 1K requests/day (500 in / 150 out) The baseline most side projects actually run at. | $0.0003 | $8.03 |
Model your exact traffic in the API cost calculator — it preloads DeepSeek V3.1 with caching and batch options.
DeepSeek V3.1 price history
DeepSeek last cut DeepSeek V3.1's output price on Sep 8, 2026 (-42% per output token), from $0.55/$1.65 to $0.25/$0.95 per 1M in/out. That is one of 4 repricings in the 58 days we have tracked it — worth knowing before you hard-code today's rate into a budget.
| Date | Input /1M | Output /1M | Output change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2, 2026 (tracking began) | $0.25 | $0.95 | — |
| Aug 22, 2026 | $0.55 | $1.65 | +74% |
| Sep 2, 2026 | $0.25 | $0.95 | -42% |
| Sep 4, 2026 | $0.55 | $1.65 | +74% |
| Sep 8, 2026 | $0.25 | $0.95 | -42% |
Change-points from our daily price snapshots (tracking since Aug 2, 2026; intraday moves between snapshots are not captured).
DeepSeek V3.1 vs Qwen3 Coder Flash
The closest-priced alternative from another vendor is Qwen3 Coder Flash (Alibaba (Qwen)) — 3% more expensive on output, with $0.055 less per million input tokens. When two models land this close on price, the decision is quality on your own workload, not the price sheet: run 50 real requests through both and compare.
See Qwen3 Coder Flash pricing →Cheaper alternatives
More DeepSeek models
Frequently asked questions
› How much does the DeepSeek V3.1 API cost?
DeepSeek V3.1 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.95 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.13 per million (48% cheaper). That works out to roughly 1,052,632 output tokens per dollar.
› What does the support chatbot workload cost on DeepSeek V3.1?
Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) costs about $0.0026 per request and $38.70 per month on DeepSeek V3.1. Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win.
› What does it cost to fill DeepSeek V3.1's 164K context window?
Sending 164K of input in a single request costs $0.041 at $0.25 per million tokens — before any output. With prompt caching that same fill drops to about $0.0213 on repeat requests. This is why large context windows are cheap to advertise and expensive to actually use.
› Is DeepSeek V3.1 worth the price?
DeepSeek V3.1 sits in the middle of the market (7 of 15 by price within DeepSeek). The honest test is a routing experiment: send the same 200 real requests to this model and to a tier below, and compare failure rate against the price gap — most teams find a majority of traffic never needed the pricier model.