DeepSeek API Usage Hits 3x OpenAI as Price War Goes Free
Yicai reported October 8, 2026 that DeepSeek's API usage is now 3x OpenAI's; after discounts failed to slow it, OpenAI pivoted to free tiers.
2026 Price War Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Apr 24 | V4 family previewed (MIT license) |
| Jul 31 | V4-Flash-0731 official |
| Sep 10 | V4.1-Flash: output prices cut another 70% |
| Oct | GPT counters with aggressive free tiers |
Off-peak half pricing plus $0.003 cache hits, plus the option to self-host open weights, make DeepSeek hard to undercut.