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DDeepSeek
DeepSeek
PACKAGING CHANGE

DeepSeek launched OCR and Speech APIs at a launch discount

By , Co-founder, PricingSaaS

Published

DeepSeek added OCR and Speech APIs at a launch discount.

See before and after

DeepSeek’s pricing page · Change detected

OCR AND SPEECH APISfirst seen Nov 14, 2026

What changed

According to DeepSeek's pricing page as of Nov 14, 2026, the company added two priced API add-ons: a File Parsing/OCR API at a launch price of $0.225 per 1,000 pages, and Speech APIs covering Text-to-Speech at $0.45 per 10K characters and Speech-to-Text/ASR at a launch price of $0.058 per hour of audio, down from a standard $0.116 per hour. Both the OCR and Speech-to-Text launch prices are discounted 50% for a limited time, per DeepSeek's pricing page as of Nov 14, 2026.

Why it matters

For product leaders stitching together multi-modal AI pipelines, this adds two more metered line items to budget alongside DeepSeek's model-token pricing: OCR billed by the page, speech billed by the character or the hour. DeepSeek's own history is the sharper read here — its Search and Fetch APIs launched free, then began billing at $0.75 per 1,000 requests after Nov 1, 2026, according to Pulse's record [[deepseek/2026D309]]. A 50% launch discount on OCR and Speech-to-Text, per DeepSeek's pricing page as of Nov 14, 2026, looks like the same playbook: an on-ramp price to drive adoption before the full rate lands. Watch whether DeepSeek doubles the OCR and Speech-to-Text rates once the introductory window closes, the way Search/Fetch's free period gave way to metered billing.

In context

Pulse has tracked 10 real pricing changes from DeepSeek since Jul 27, 2026, averaging about one every 11 days, with 8 of them in the last 90 days DeepSeek. Pulse tracked DeepSeek's last free add-on, Search/Fetch, launching free on Oct 17, 2026 and starting to bill at $0.75 per 1,000 requests on Nov 5, 2026 [[deepseek/2026D309]] [[deepseek/2026D290]]. New paid add-ons are common elsewhere too: Pulse tracked 167 pricing changes across 135 companies introducing add-ons in the last 180 days, including Uplisting's £8-per-listing AirDNA add-on on Nov 9, 2026 [[uplisting/2026W46]] and Getcargo's $10,000-a-month Managed add-on the same day [[getcargo/2026W46]]. Set against that pattern, DeepSeek's 50% launch discount on OCR and Speech-to-Text, per its pricing page as of Nov 14, 2026, reads less like a promotion and more like its standard way of introducing a new metered line before it settles into a full rate.

Common questions

How do we estimate the monthly cost of using DeepSeek's new OCR or speech APIs?

Multiply DeepSeek's per-unit launch rate — by the page for OCR, by the character for Text-to-Speech, or by the hour for Speech-to-Text — by your expected monthly volume, and build in headroom since the launch pricing has no published end date.

Could the 50% launch discount end, and how would we know?

DeepSeek hasn't published an end date — the item calls it only a 'limited-time' launch price, per its pricing page as of Nov 14, 2026. Treat it as temporary and recheck before relying on today's per-unit rate for long-term budgeting.

Does this change DeepSeek's core per-token model pricing?

Not as reported — the diff only lists the two new OCR/Speech add-ons, with no mention of token-rate changes elsewhere. If per-token cost matters to your workload, confirm current rates directly on DeepSeek's pricing page before budgeting, since add-on launches and model-price moves are tracked separately.

Sources