DeepSeek Hikes API Price Amid Rising Demand, Seeks US$7.4b Funding

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek will boost API prices throughout its platform due to rising usage and introduce peak-hour surge charging.

It will be a "significant price increase," DeepSeek said on its website.

According to media reports, DeepSeek would increase API charges during weekday peak hours (9am–12 noon and 14pm–18pm Beijing Time) and maintain base rates on weekends and public holidays.

Heavy developers and enterprise users will be most affected. Developer platform OpenCode reported that DeepSeek's V4 Flash model processed 8 trillion tokens in a single day on August 1 – comprising 5 trillion from free tiers and 3 trillion from paid developer calls.

Despite increases, DeepSeek continues to be cheaper.

DeepSeek, a leading Chinese AI model, cost about 10 percent less than OpenAI and Anthropic, according to UBS analysts in July.

After a brief hiatus, DeepSeek revived its second funding round, seeking 50 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion) at a valuation of 500 billion.

This follows a 50 billion yuan round in June backed by China's National AI Industry Investment Fund, Tencent, CATL, NetEase and JD.com.