DeepSeek V3 API output token price doubles after launch promotion ends
DeepSeek's V3 API launched with promotional pricing of $0.28/M output tokens. Two months later that doubled to $0.55/M with one week's notice. Still cheap relative to GPT/Claude, but doubled is doubled.
What changed
Panel verdict· panel not assembled
The panel is convened only for receipts at major severity or above. INFO and minor receipts are filed for record without LLM verdicts.
Response· vendor statement · uncontested
UNCONTESTEDDeepSeek has not publicly addressed this change.96 days since filing · response window has closed · this receipt is marked uncontested.
Predicted impact · est.
low confidenceHeuristic estimate. Every user on the affected plan absorbs the price delta. How we estimate ↗
Context · narrative
The promotional pricing period ended on schedule per the original announcement, but the magnitude (2x) caught users who had built apps assuming the launch rate would persist. DeepSeek is the cheapest frontier-quality option in the market, so the change moved it from 'almost free' to 'merely cheap.'