DeepSeek Cuts the Cost of a New AI Model by 75 Percent, Heating Up China's Artificial Intelligence Price War

DeepSeek cuts the cost of using the latest AI models by up to 75 percent to attract developers and companies (photo: x @deepseek)

JAKARTA - Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek is shaking up the global technology industry again after slashing the usage rates of its latest AI model by up to 75 percent. This aggressive move is considered a major strategy to expand the adoption of technology while tightening competition in the increasingly competitive AI industry.

The Hangzhou-based company is offering developers big discounts on its latest flagship model, the DeepSeek-V4-Pro, which was released last week after a long-awaited market.

Not only that, DeepSeek also cut the cost for the input cache feature across its AI platforms to only one-tenth of the previous rate. This policy drastically reduces the cost for users who often send similar or repeated requests.

The move is seen as reigniting the AI price war in China, after DeepSeek shook up the industry with the launch of the R1 model in 2025.

In the midst of this situation, large companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google also continue to release new models with advanced capabilities, but with access costs that are considered quite high.

Meanwhile, Chinese AI companies are choosing a different approach: pushing down prices to drive user migration and accelerate adoption in global markets.

Cheap Price Becomes DeepSeek's Strategic Weapon

DeepSeek makes price, accessibility, and feature sophistication the key differentiators to reach a new generation of developers as well as corporate users.

The DeepSeek-V4-Pro model comes with a context window of up to 1 million tokens. This means that this model is able to process long documents, complex code bases, and large amounts of data in a single workflow.

This capability is one of the main advantages because it supports the needs of developers who build enterprise-scale AI applications.

In addition, this model is designed to be easily integrated with various other AI ecosystems such as Claude Code, OpenClaw, and OpenCode.

This approach allows companies and startups to adopt the model without having to rebuild their technology infrastructure.

One of the founders of the Bangalore-based AI startup, O-Health, Akshar Keremane, assessed that DeepSeek's move opens up great opportunities for many business actors.

"The more affordable price, the availability of open source, and the context window feature of 1 million tokens lower the barriers for developers, startups, and small companies," said Keremane.

"This allows users to experiment with model capabilities and scales that were previously unavailable," he added.

The statement shows that DeepSeek's strategy is not only focused on low prices, but also opens access to advanced AI technology for more people.

China Strengthens Position in Global AI Competition

DeepSeek's tariff cuts are seen as a strategic move by China to strengthen its position in the global AI race, especially in the face of the dominance of US companies.

Over the past few years, Silicon Valley still leads the innovation of generative AI models. However, the high cost of using premium services opens up opportunities for new players to offer more economical alternatives.

With high-performance but low-cost models, Chinese companies are trying to build a more open and accessible AI ecosystem.

This strategy is considered to have the potential to change the global competition map, especially in developing countries that need AI solutions with cost efficiency.

Analysts assess that DeepSeek's move could trigger a new wave of price wars in the AI sector, as well as encourage other companies to adjust their business models.

If this trend continues, then the competition for AI in the future will not only be determined by the sophistication of technology, but also by who is able to bring innovation at the most efficient cost.

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