DeepSeek Permanently Cuts V4-Pro AI Model Prices by 75%

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek announced on May 23, 2026, a permanent 75% price reduction for its flagship V4-Pro AI model. The company transitioned a limited-time promotion into a permanent structure, lowering API fees to between 0.025 and 6 yuan per million tokens, down from the previous range of 0.1 to 24 yuan.

DeepSeek attributes the reduction to efficiency gains in long-context inference. The move is closely linked to the increased availability of Huawei Ascend 950 AI processors and supernodes, which have reduced operational expenses and expanded computing capacity as Chinese firms seek alternatives to Nvidia hardware due to U.S. export restrictions.

Third-party benchmark firm Artificial Analysis subsequently ranked V4-Pro as one of the world's most cost-efficient models on an intelligence-per-dollar basis. Reports indicate the model costs 12 to 19 times less than competitors such as OpenAI's GPT-5.5 and Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.7 for equivalent tasks. Analysts suggest this aggressive pricing intensifies an AI price war, potentially forcing Western rivals including Google toward value-based monetization.