DeepSeek V3 pricing and routing profile
DeepSeek V3 from DeepSeek lists at $0.257 per million input tokens and $1.03 per million output tokens, with a 163,840-token context window. Prices from OpenRouter's catalogue on 2026-09-28.
Tool callingStructured output
Cost per 1,000 requests
| Request shape | List cost |
|---|---|
| Classification or routing (600 tokens in, 10 out) | $0.165 |
| Chat reply (2,000 in, 400 out) | $0.926 |
| Retrieval-augmented answer (8,000 in, 500 out) | $2.57 |
Before prompt caching. Try your own shape in the cost calculator.
Can Gimbix route to it first?
Not as a first-answer model through OpenRouter: no host returns token log probabilities for DeepSeek V3. It can still be the model Gimbix falls back to when a cheaper model is unsure.
Cheaper models that can answer first
Models priced below DeepSeek V3 that expose a confidence signal. Whether they answer your traffic as well is what a Gimbix pilot measures.
| Model | Input / output per 1M | Cheaper on a chat reply |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V3.1 | $0.25 / $0.95 | 5% |
| Qwen3 Coder Flash | $0.195 / $0.975 | 16% |
| Qwen3.6 35B A3B | $0.15 / $1.00 | 24% |
| Llama 4 Maverick | $0.188 / $0.652 | 31% |
| Qwen3 Coder Next | $0.12 / $0.80 | 40% |
| Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct | $0.15 / $0.60 | 42% |
Questions
How much does DeepSeek V3 cost?
DeepSeek V3 lists at $0.257 per million input tokens and $1.03 per million output tokens on OpenRouter as of 2026-09-28. A typical chat reply of 2,000 input and 400 output tokens costs about $0.926 per 1,000 requests.
What is the context window of DeepSeek V3?
163,840 tokens.
Can a cheaper model replace DeepSeek V3?
Sometimes. Gimbix proves it on your own traffic before routing: the cheaper model must match DeepSeek V3 on one half of your requests and make at most three answers worse on the other.