Update β July 1, 2026: DeepSeek's official announcement confirms mid-July 2026 for V4 official β not a new model name, but the graduation from preview with peak-hour pricing and stated εθ½δΌεεζ§θ½ζε (feature optimization and performance improvements). Live pricing docs Β· V4 preview migration guide. Last updated: July 1, 2026.
If you have been calling deepseek-v4-pro or deepseek-v4-flash since April 2026, you were on preview β not the official release. Teortaxes (@teortaxesTex) put it bluntly on June 29: "Yeah yeah you might think we had V4 for over 2 months already, but no, that was 'preview of V4.'"
DeepSeek now expects heavy demand at official launch and is introducing peak-hour pricing: 2Γ baseline during defined Beijing business windows. Off-peak rates stay the same as today's preview pricing.
TL;DR β DeepSeek V4 Official vs Preview
Item
Detail
Launch window
Mid-July 2026 (7ζδΈζ¬) β official V4
What you had since April
V4 Preview β same model IDs, not final release
Peak hours (Beijing)
9:00β12:00 and 14:00β18:00 daily
Peak multiplier
2Γ off-peak baseline on all listed token prices
Off-peak baseline
Unchanged from current preview pricing
Notice
Email 24 hours before pricing takes effect
Opt-out
Stop service + apply for refund of remaining balance
deepseek-chat / deepseek-reasoner still retire July 24, 2026
The Official Announcement β What DeepSeek Said
DeepSeek's Chinese notice (June 29, 2026) states:
The official version of DeepSeek V4 is planned to launch in mid-July. This version update will bring more feature optimizations and performance improvements. To ensure stable service quality and reasonable resource allocation, the API will introduce a peak and off-peak pricing mechanism.
Peak hours defined
Window
Beijing time
Morning peak
09:00 β 12:00
Afternoon peak
14:00 β 18:00
Off-peak
All other hours
During peak hours, listed prices double. During off-peak, prices match the current baseline.
User protections
24-hour email notice before pricing adjustment takes effect
Refund path: users who disagree may stop using the service and apply for a refund of remaining balance
Full Pricing Tables β CNY (per million tokens)
Baseline = off-peak. Peak = 2Γ baseline.
deepseek-v4-pro
Billing item
Off-peak (Β₯/M)
Peak (Β₯/M)
Input (cache hit)
Β₯0.025
Β₯0.05
Input (cache miss)
Β₯3.00
Β₯6.00
Output
Β₯6.00
Β₯12.00
deepseek-v4-flash
Billing item
Off-peak (Β₯/M)
Peak (Β₯/M)
Input (cache hit)
Β₯0.02
Β₯0.04
Input (cache miss)
Β₯1.00
Β₯2.00
Output
Β₯2.00
Β₯4.00
USD baseline (off-peak) β current preview rates
Model
Input (cache hit)
Input (cache miss)
Output
deepseek-v4-flash
$0.0028
$0.14
$0.28
deepseek-v4-pro
$0.003625
$0.435
$0.87
Peak USD: multiply off-peak by 2Γ during Beijing peak windows.
Even doubled, Teortaxes and replies note V4 remains "dirt cheap" vs US frontier APIs β especially Flash for high-volume agent loops. See our V4-Pro economics deep-dive for agent workload math.
1M context, 384K max output, thinking + non-thinking modes
OpenAI + Anthropic-compatible API surfaces
Official launch does not rename these IDs. It adds:
Peak/off-peak billing β demand management
Stated εθ½δΌε (feature/UX polish) and ζ§θ½ζε (performance lift)
Reading the Chinese β polish or intelligence?
Teortaxes read the announcement phrasing as "no new features, just continued infra optimization and model polish."
That is one fair reading of εθ½δΌε (functional optimization β smoother API, stability, caching). But ζ§θ½ζε is ambiguous in Chinese AI product language:
Term
Narrow read
Broad read
εθ½δΌε
API polish, bug fixes, UX
Refined tool-calling, JSON modes
ζ§θ½ζε
Faster TPS, lower latency
Higher benchmark accuracy, better reasoning
ηζ¬ζ΄ζ°
Software patch
New model deployment
Community replies like @xhyctf asked directly: "performance improvement should be pretty significant, right?" DeepSeek has not attached new benchmark tables to the pricing notice β treat performance claims as directional until weights/docs update.
Official mid-July is the production billing and stability milestone β not necessarily a wholly new architecture drop.
Timezone Math β Who Gets Cheap Hours?
Peak windows are Beijing time. That creates predictable pain:
Region
Local overlap with Beijing peak
China
Business hours β peak
US East (EDT)
Roughly 21:00β02:00 and 02:00β06:00 β mixed
US West (PDT)
Evening/night β often off-peak for US devs
Europe (CEST)
Morning/afternoon β partial peak overlap
@Shoier__ noted the squeeze: "During the day in China it's peak hour. During the day in 'Murica it's also peak hour. So it leaves not so many hours where it is cheap."
@GeorgeBisbas countered optimistically: "Europe can fully have non-peak at their working hours."
Practical takeaway: US West Coast and late-shift EU teams can batch heavy agent jobs off-peak. China-native production traffic pays peak by design β DeepSeek's revenue model targets domestic business-hour demand.
Teortaxes Thread β Context From a DeepSeek Watcher
DeepSeek undercut Western APIs for two years. Peak pricing is the first widespread surge-pricing mechanism on V4 β still cheap at 2Γ, but no longer flat-rate infinite scale at preview prices during CN business hours.
Model Specs Unchanged β Quick Reference
From DeepSeek's Models & Pricing page (current preview docs):
Spec
deepseek-v4-flash
deepseek-v4-pro
Context
1M tokens
1M tokens
Max output
384K
384K
Thinking modes
Both (default thinking)
Both (default thinking)
Tool calls / JSON
Yes
Yes
FIM completion (beta)
Non-thinking only
Non-thinking only
Concurrency limit
2,500
500
Legacy retirement:deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner β July 24, 2026 (migration guide).
What Builders Should Do Before Mid-July
1. Budget with peak multipliers
Model agent workloads that run during Beijing 9β12 / 14β18 at 2Γ token cost. Cache hits stay cheap even at peak (e.g. Pro cache hit peak = Β₯0.05/M).
2. Shift batch jobs off-peak where possible
Embeddings sweeps, eval runs, dataset generation β schedule outside peak if your timezone allows.
3. Watch your email
DeepSeek promises 24-hour notice β do not get surprised on billing day.
4. Decide on refund vs continue
Disagree with surge pricing? Withdraw balance per official policy before running production peaks.
5. Keep preview evals running
Official may improve prompt following (community complaint: "super smart kid with ADHD"). Re-benchmark on your tasks when mid-July drops β not X speculation.
6. Plan legacy ID migration
July 24 retirement still looms independent of mid-July official launch.
DeepSeek V4 in the Broader June 2026 Landscape
Mid-July V4 official lands in a crowded open-weight market:
GLM-5.2 β BridgeBench reasoning leader post-Fable ban
Fable 5 still offline β US export control pushes international devs to DeepSeek stack
DeepSeek's move is monetize demand at peak while keeping off-peak floor that already disrupted Western pricing in Q1 2026 (pricing disruption post).
The Honest Answer
Is DeepSeek V4 "new" in mid-July?
Commercially yes, technically incremental. Preview β official with peak pricing and stated optimizations. Do not expect a surprise V5 name change.
Will prices go up?
Yes, half the day. Peak = 2Γ. Off-peak = same as today.
Will the model get smarter?
Maybe. Announcement language allows it; no new public benchmarks shipped with the pricing notice. Wait for mid-July docs and re-run your evals.
Is it still worth it?
For most agent builders, even peak Flash pricing undercuts US frontier APIs by an order of magnitude. Pro at peak is still a fraction of Claude/GPT tier pricing β with 1M context and open weights.
Pricing tables reflect DeepSeek's June 29, 2026 announcement and api-docs.deepseek.com Models & Pricing page. Peak hours, dates, and rates may change β verify official docs before production budgeting.