DeepSeek Makes 75% Price Cut On V4-Pro AI Model
Synopsis
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has permanently reduced prices for its flagship V4-Pro artificial intelligence model by 75%, cutting API costs to as low as 0.025 yuan per million tokens. The move comes as competition in China’s AI sector accelerates and local chipmaker Huawei expands supply of its Ascend 950 AI chips. The price reduction also highlights how U.S. export controls on Nvidia chips are reshaping China’s domestic AI and semiconductor market.
DeepSeek has announced a permanent 75% reduction in pricing for its flagship V4-Pro AI model, significantly lowering API costs as competition in China’s AI industry continues to grow and Huawei strengthens its position in AI hardware.
Key Highlights
- DeepSeek permanently reduced V4-Pro pricing by 75%
- API pricing now ranges from 0.025 yuan to 6 yuan per million tokens
- Earlier pricing ranged between 0.1 yuan and 24 yuan
- Huawei Ascend 950 chips may have contributed to the lower costs
- Nvidia export restrictions are continuing to reshape China’s AI landscape
DeepSeek Permanently Lowers V4-Pro Prices
On Saturday, DeepSeek confirmed that the 75% price reduction for its V4-Pro artificial intelligence model will remain permanent. The Chinese AI startup lowered API costs from the previous range of 0.1 yuan to 24 yuan per million tokens to a new range of 0.025 yuan to 6 yuan. Tokens refer to units of text processed by AI systems during prompts and responses.
Focus Turns To Huawei Chips And Supply Expansion
DeepSeek did not directly say whether the pricing cut was connected to increased availability of Huawei’s Ascend 950 AI chips, which the company has been using to improve the performance of its V4 models. When the V4 lineup was introduced last month, DeepSeek noted that the Pro version carried higher costs because of limited access to advanced computing resources. The company had previously suggested prices could decline once Huawei’s Ascend 950 supernodes became more widely available later this year.
Competition In China’s AI Sector Keeps Growing
The latest move reflects the rapidly intensifying competition within China’s AI market, where companies are aggressively reducing prices to attract users and expand adoption. Huawei’s AI chip business has benefited from U.S. export restrictions that block Nvidia from supplying its most advanced chips to China. However, controls on chipmaking equipment exports have also created challenges for Huawei in increasing production of its Ascend processors.
FAQs
- What did DeepSeek announce?
DeepSeek announced a permanent 75% price reduction for its V4-Pro AI model.
- What are the updated V4-Pro API prices?
The new pricing ranges from 0.025 yuan to 6 yuan per million tokens.
- How are U.S. export restrictions impacting China’s AI market?
Restrictions on Nvidia chip exports are encouraging Chinese companies to depend more on domestic alternatives such as Huawei.
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