DeepSeek: announced peak/off-peak surge pricing (2x during peak hours)
What happened
Between the Jul 27, 2026 and Aug 3, 2026 captures of DeepSeek's pricing page, Pulse recorded one change: Announced upcoming peak/off-peak pricing policy — prices will be 2x the regular rate during peak hours (9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 Beijing time, daily); effective date not yet set. In detail: Announced upcoming peak/off-peak pricing policy: prices will be 2x the regular rate during peak hours (9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 Beijing time, daily), applicable to all billing items; effective date not yet set. Pulse files it as a packaging change (package change) with a neutral direction. Pulse's latest capture (Oct 19, 2026) lists DeepSeek Flash at $0.15 per 1M input tokens (cache miss) + $0.3 per 100M input tokens (cache hit) and DeepSeek V4 Pro at $0.66 per 1M input tokens (cache miss) + $2.2 per 100M input tokens (cache hit).
This is the first pricing-page change Pulse has recorded for DeepSeek. DeepSeek has been tracked since 2026-05-16.
In the same window Metabase, OpenAI, Anthropic, X and Google also changed their AI & Machine Learning pricing pages. Those moves are listed further down, and the Pulse Agent can compare them side by side.
- — · PackagingPackage change
Announced upcoming peak/off-peak pricing policy: prices will be 2x the regular rate during peak hours (9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 Beijing time, daily), applicable to all billing items; effective date not yet set
| Plan | Field | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Packaging | Announced upcoming peak/off-peak pricing policy: prices will be 2x the regular rate during peak hours (9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 Beijing time, daily), applicable to all billing items; effective date not yet set | Package change | |
Values as written on DeepSeek's public pricing page in the two captures Pulse compared; where the page states no number, the cells give the wording before and after.
Evidence
The two captures Pulse comparedFull-page captures of DeepSeek's pricing page (deepseek.com) from Jul 27, 2026 and Aug 3, 2026; the change is marked in the lower part of the page.
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The two full-page captures with this change marked up are free with an account.
DeepSeek, pricing history
Full history- Aug 24, 2026packagingDeepSeek adds vision model, exempts weekends from peak pricing
- Aug 17, 2026increaseDeepSeek: API pricing restructured to peak/off-peak billing, prices roughly double
- Aug 11, 2026packagingDeepSeek: dropped peak/off-peak pricing plan, warns of broader increase
- Aug 3, 2026packagingDeepSeek: announced peak/off-peak surge pricing (2x during peak hours) · this change
Across AI & Machine Learning in the same window
All AI & Machine Learning changes- MetabaseAug 3Metabase: Storage add-on price cut ($40/500k rows → $2/1M rows)
- OpenAIJul 25OpenAI: ChatGPT plan taglines reframed to 'Best for X' audience framing
- AnthropicJul 23Anthropic: Fable model + context window disclosed in comparison table
- XJul 13X swaps flagship model — grok-4.5 costs more, sees less, drops coding model
- GoogleJul 6Google Vertexai delays Agent Gateway billing to July 13, extends free window
Questions about this change
Did DeepSeek raise prices in August 2026?
No list-price increase was recorded between Jul 27, 2026 and Aug 3, 2026. The change Pulse detected was a packaging change: package change.
What changed on DeepSeek's pricing page between Jul 27, 2026 and Aug 3, 2026?
Announced upcoming peak/off-peak pricing policy: prices will be 2x the regular rate during peak hours (9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 Beijing time, daily), applicable to all billing items; effective date not yet set. Pulse compared the captures it took on Jul 27, 2026 and Aug 3, 2026; the before/after table above lists each item as written on the page.
How often does DeepSeek change its pricing?
Pulse recorded 0 other pricing-page changes for DeepSeek in the 90 days before this one; DeepSeek has been tracked since 2026-05-16.