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How has DeepSeek priced over time?
Track price changes, compare to category averages, and decide when is the right time to sign up.
DeepSeek
DeepSeek Pricing History
StableVerified historical tracking by GoPickStack researchers.
Price timeline
The short answer
DeepSeek has a genuine free tier, and the paid plans start at $0 per month. The price has held steady at $0 per month across the 3 price points we have tracked.
DeepSeek price history explained
We have tracked DeepSeek pricing across 3 recorded price points, starting May 2024 and running to September 2026.
The direction is flat.
The price opened at $0 and still sits at $0 per month.
That works out to 0 price changes in the period, with a low of $0 and a high of $0 per month.
The last change was 1 month ago, in September 2026.
For context, the average starting price across our ai tools tools is $18.16 per month, so DeepSeek sits $18.16 below it.
Here is what actually changed, in our own words: May 2024, DeepSeek-V2 launched with free web chat and token pricing at $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens.
January 2025, DeepSeek-V3 and R1 reasoning releases maintained the free consumer chat interface and low inference rates.
September 2026, Verified September 2026 by GoPickStack; consumer chat remains free at $0/month, while developer API inference introduced peak and off-peak rate bands starting from $0.15 per million input tokens off-peak.
Pricing on this page is indicative and compiled from publicly available information.
Confirm the live figure on the vendor site before you sign anything..
DeepSeek plans and what you actually get
We publish the tiers we can verify from our own tracking rather than copying a pricing page. The rows below are the prices DeepSeek has actually charged between May 2024 and September 2026. Higher published tiers exist, but we will not print a number we have not seen change.
Free
$0per monthTrying the tool, or running it at a small scale
- Core feature set
- No card required
- Good enough to evaluate before you pay
Current entry price
$0/moper monthThe price you pay if you sign up today
- DeepSeek-V2 launched with free web chat and token pricing at $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens
What DeepSeek costs as the team grows
At the entry price, a five person team costs $0 per month, or $0 across a year per user. The category average for the same five seats is $90.82 per month, so this is $90.82 less. Two years at the current price is $0. That is the number to compare against a competitor's two year quote. Prices above assume no add-ons. Seat minimums, onboarding fees and annual-only discounts are the usual reasons a real invoice lands higher.
| Seats | Per month | Per year | Over two years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 5 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 20 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 50 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
How DeepSeek compares to the alternatives
The fair comparison is not against the biggest name in the category, it is against the tool that does the same job for less.
We pulled the 5 closest rivals to DeepSeek from our own catalog, with the reason each one is a credible swap.
On price, the cheapest credible swap is OpenAI at $5 per month, compared with DeepSeek at $0/mo ($0.14/M tokens).
On our own testing, OpenAI scores 4.8 out of 5 against DeepSeek at 4.8.
Ease of use.
Prices are the vendors' published starting points, checked recently, and they move.
Read the full DeepSeek review before you switch anything..
OpenAI is the pick when you want developers and enterprises building production ai applications on gpt-4o and o1 models, and it leads on ease of use.
Ease of use
ChatGPT is the pick when you want anyone who wants a versatile ai assistant for writing, coding, data analysis, and custom workflows, and it leads on features.
Features
Claude is the pick when you want developers, researchers, and writers who need high-quality code generation, long-document analysis, and natural prose that sounds human without editing, and it leads on features.
Features
Perplexity is the pick when you want researchers, students, analysts, and knowledge workers who need fast, cited, real time answers from the web without opening a dozen browser tabs. perplexity is the best default answer engine for fact first work and for people who want to switch between leading ai models in one place., and it leads on research & citations.
Research & Citations
Cursor is the pick when you want software developers, engineers, and tech startups who want an ai-native ide with repository-wide context indexing, terminal execution, and multi-file editing capabilities, and it leads on features.
Features
Hidden costs and pricing traps
Stable does not mean locked
DeepSeek has held at $0 per month across 3 recorded price points. Long stability is a good sign, but vendors still restructure tiers, and the cheapest recorded price on this page is $0.
The free tier is not the product
The free plan is enough to evaluate DeepSeek, and it is rarely enough to run on. The jump from free to the entry plan is where the real decision happens, and the limits between those two tiers are the part to read twice.
Buy DeepSeek if
DeepSeek fits best for cost-sensitive engineering teams, automated code generation pipelines, and high-volume agent swarms.. The reasons we reached for it in testing were extremely low api token inference costs ($0.14 per 1m input tokens), high mathematical and code reasoning capabilities matching top closed models, and open weights available for local private deployment via ollama or vllm. Because the price is a flat account fee, adding people costs nothing extra, which makes it easier to bring in the whole team.
Look elsewhere if
It is the wrong call if the following bothers you: public cloud api can experience intermittent peak-hour server latency, smaller multi-modal ecosystem compared to google gemini or openai, and context window rate limits apply during global demand spikes. Even a strong tool has a matching competitor. If a rival scores higher on the one thing you care most about, take the rival. Price is only part of the decision. Migration time, the feature you will actually miss, and how long the vendor stays in business all belong in the same conversation.
Should you buy now
Reasonable time to sign up
Nothing in the price history suggests a pending hike, with the last recorded change 1 month ago. Start on the entry plan, measure it against the alternatives on this page for a full billing cycle, and upgrade only when you hit a real limit.
DeepSeek pricing questions
How much does DeepSeek cost per month?Pricing
DeepSeek has a free tier, and the paid entry point we have recorded is $0 per month. The current figure is $0.
Has DeepSeek ever increased its price?Pricing
Not in the period we track. The price opened at $0 and is $0 per month now, with 3 recorded data points confirming it.
What does DeepSeek cost for a small team?Pricing
At the entry price, a five person team costs $0 per month, or $0 across a year per user. The category average for the same five seats is $90.82 per month, so this is $90.82 less. Two years at the current price is $0. That is the number to compare against a competitor's two year quote. Prices above assume no add-ons. Seat minimums, onboarding fees and annual-only discounts are the usual reasons a real invoice lands higher.
Is DeepSeek more expensive than its competitors?Pricing
DeepSeek sits against a ai tools category average of $18.16 per month. OpenAI starts at $5 credit (Pay-as-you-go), ChatGPT starts at Free, Plus from $20/mo, Claude starts at Free. The full table with a reason for each swap is on this page.
Does DeepSeek have a free plan?Pricing
Yes. There is a free tier, which is enough to evaluate the tool and to run light workloads. The jump from free to the entry plan is the real decision, and the limits between those tiers are the part worth reading twice.
Is now a good time to buy DeepSeek?Pricing
Nothing in the price history suggests a pending hike, with the last recorded change 1 month ago. Start on the entry plan, measure it against the alternatives on this page for a full billing cycle, and upgrade only when you hit a real limit.
Keep reading
Last price point recorded September 2026. Price has been stable, so now is as good a time as any to sign up. Pricing is indicative, compiled from publicly available information, and confirmed on DeepSeek at the date shown in the timeline. Always confirm the live figure on the vendor site before you sign.