DeepSeek R1 pricing for json extraction

Quick start

Call DeepSeek R1 with the OpenAI Python SDK pointed at api.deepseek.com:

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.deepseek.com/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"],
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-r1",
    max_tokens=800,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Your prompt here"}]
)
# Cost: ~$0.003402 per call at standard rates
# Input:  $0.55/MTok
# Output: $2.19/MTok

How DeepSeek R1 compares on cost

Per-call cost for all models scoring 50+ on json extraction benchmarks. Hover for details.

Highest-quality affordable option: Gemini 3 Flash at $0.003900/call (1.1x the cost, 86/100 quality). DeepSeek R1 is already the cheapest choice for json extraction.

What drives json extraction cost

Structured JSON output is compact and predictable, so cost is set almost entirely by how much source text you send. The schema itself is identical on every call and belongs in the cached prefix. This is also a task where a smaller model often matches a larger one: the output space is constrained by the schema, which limits how wrong a cheaper model can go.

For DeepSeek R1 specifically, that means output tokens cost 4.0x more than input, at $2.19 vs $0.55 per MTok. At this use case’s 3,000/800 token split, output accounts for 51% of the $0.003402 per-call cost.

DeepSeek R1 quality benchmarks for json extraction

Benchmark data for json extraction is pending for DeepSeek R1. Test against your own evaluation suite before moving to production.

Benchmark data is not yet available for DeepSeek R1. We recommend testing against your own evaluation criteria.

About DeepSeek R1

Prices are off-peak rates from api-docs.deepseek.com (read 2026-10-11). Peak-hour prices are 2x the listed input and output rates — Tokeven does not model time-of-day tiers; off-peak is used as the base. Cache hit: $0.14/MTok input. No batch discount published. Reasoning model: output includes chain-of-thought tokens. Not yet benchmarked, so never recommended.

Other models from DeepSeek

You can compare DeepSeek R1 head-to-head against any other model on our model comparison pages, or track how pricing has changed over time on the pricing history tracker.

Frequently asked questions