DeepSeek V4 Peak and Off-Peak Pricing: Times, Rates, and Savings
DeepSeek’s V4 peak/off-peak schedule is announced to start August 16, 2026 at 16:00 UTC. The cheapest window is not the default: schedule flexible batch work outside the 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC peak windows, and label every estimate by rate basis until activation.
By Todd · Published 2026-08-14 · Verified 2026-08-14
| Effective | 2026-08-16 at 16:00 UTC |
|---|---|
| Peak UTC | 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 |
| V4 Flash off-peak | $0.007 / $0.22 / $0.66 per M |
| V4 Pro off-peak | $0.022 / $0.66 / $1.98 per M |
| Rate basis | Cache hit / cache miss / output |
| Verified | 2026-08-14 |
Effective-date banner
These are announced rates, effective August 16 at 16:00 UTC. Before that timestamp, do not describe the new schedule as current. After activation, resolve the rate from the event time rather than from deploy time.
Peak and off-peak windows
DeepSeek identifies 01:00–04:00 UTC and 06:00–10:00 UTC as peak windows. All other UTC hours are off-peak. The boundary matters: 04:00 UTC is off-peak, 06:00 UTC is peak, and 10:00 UTC is off-peak.
- V4 Flash peak: $0.014 cache-hit, $0.44 cache-miss input, $1.32 output per million
- V4 Flash off-peak: $0.007 cache-hit, $0.22 cache-miss input, $0.66 output per million
- V4 Pro peak: $0.044 cache-hit, $1.32 cache-miss input, $3.96 output per million
- V4 Pro off-peak: $0.022 cache-hit, $0.66 cache-miss input, $1.98 output per million
Scheduling guidance
Put flexible batch jobs, embedding-adjacent enrichment, nightly evaluations, and large cacheable prompts into off-peak UTC hours. Do not trade away an SLA to save tokens: latency, concurrency, provider throttling, retries, and queue time can dominate the nominal rate difference. Convert UTC to the queue’s actual timezone and store the UTC schedule as the source of truth.
Cost examples
At off-peak rates, 10M cache-hit input tokens plus 1M output tokens cost about $0.73 on V4 Flash. The same workload with 10M cache-miss input tokens costs about $2.86. On V4 Pro, the corresponding totals are about $2.20 and $8.58. These examples exclude retries and any provider-specific minimums.
Caveats
A cache hit is not the same thing as a cheaper cache miss, and an off-peak rate is not a promise of lower latency. Record cache status, UTC event time, and retry count with every cost sample so your finance dashboard does not blend incomparable rates.
Explore the canonical data
Test it yourself
Run the same prompt across deepseek v4 flash, deepseek v4 pro in one workspace.
Open the comparison playground →FAQ
When does DeepSeek V4 off-peak pricing start?
The announced schedule becomes effective August 16, 2026 at 16:00 UTC.
Which hours are peak?
01:00–04:00 UTC and 06:00–10:00 UTC. Other hours are off-peak.