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New Deepseek models are like Christmas for me. Really big fan of low cost API models, noone does it better than DS. Until VRAM price is low enough to run models

New Deepseek models are like Christmas for me. Really big fan of low cost API models, noone does it better than DS. Until VRAM price is low enough to run models locally, this is the way to go. The subsidized subscription model won't last, API pricing "feels" closer to a true sustainable business model.

VulgarExigency 2mo ago
I would bet that Deepseek API pricing is still more cost effective per token than the subscriptions. With the increase in quality Deepseek Flash just got (in my personal testing so far, it seems to have improved a lot at following instructions, and has become more proactive), there really isn’t anything that can match it in terms of cost effectiveness.
- rapind 2mo ago
  The issue for me is the data privacy if you're using their hosted prices, because you cannot opt out of data collection (and I'm not sure how you'd legally follow up on it if they did offer it, but didn't actually follow through). That means all of my code is being retained for training. I've used it in some open source code though, and loved how fast it was. My mind is changing on how valuable my code actually is though... it's the complete picture, how it's put together, the design, the UI, the attention to detail that's the real value.
- nodja 2mo ago
  I'm not a heavy user of agentic coding, but still use them quite a bit for some automation here and there. I've been going around shopping all the ~$10 subscriptions and I finally settled on openrouter + ds4 pro. The more intensive days cost me $1 and I set a $2 weekly limit which I've never hit the past 3 weeks, to me it's way cheaper than most subscriptions and I don't have to worry about maximizing my weekly quota/resets.
jingpostmedia 2mo ago
[flagged]
deleted 2mo ago
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Flere-Imsaho 2mo ago
Indeed. My fellow software engineers keep complaining about using up all their Claude tokens within an hour... Whilst I'll be rocking DS flash for the entire day. Sure it gets a few things wrong here and there, but that's when you pull out the Claude models or whatever for those tricky tasks.
- felixgallo 2mo ago
  what plan are your 'fellow software engineers' using? I have a hard time even using up the Fable part of my allowance in a week of coding.
  - Flere-Imsaho 2mo ago
    I'm not sure to be fair, but they do have constant "token anxiety", which I simply don't have anymore since using v4 flash.
    - dominotw 2mo ago
      why do they do if their employers are paying for it?
      - 0xc133 2mo ago
        because once they run out of tokens they can’t do their jobs anymore
        Demiurge 2mo ago
        This is a sad state of affair. I'm faster with the LLM, but I sure as hell can do everything just like I could, as before the current state of things.
        dominotw 2mo ago
        Its not because the whole thread is made up bs about imaginary friends.
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refulgentis 2mo ago
FWIW, looking at pricing myself, it needs to 5x the tokens to get the same results as GPT 5.6 Luna at a much lower TPS. (doesn't obviate the fact that the pressure causes incumbents to push and push to optimize, thank you Deepseek!)
singingtoday 2mo ago
I have one of my projects on DeepSeek and it blows my mind how I can use tens of millions of tokens for pennies. I don't find it suitable for everything, but there's some tasks it crushes for what feels like almost free.

VulgarExigency 2mo ago

I would bet that Deepseek API pricing is still more cost effective per token than the subscriptions. With the increase in quality Deepseek Flash just got (in my personal testing so far, it seems to have improved a lot at following instructions, and has become more proactive), there really isn’t anything that can match it in terms of cost effectiveness.

rapind 2mo ago
The issue for me is the data privacy if you're using their hosted prices, because you cannot opt out of data collection (and I'm not sure how you'd legally follow up on it if they did offer it, but didn't actually follow through). That means all of my code is being retained for training. I've used it in some open source code though, and loved how fast it was. My mind is changing on how valuable my code actually is though... it's the complete picture, how it's put together, the design, the UI, the attention to detail that's the real value.
nodja 2mo ago
I'm not a heavy user of agentic coding, but still use them quite a bit for some automation here and there. I've been going around shopping all the ~$10 subscriptions and I finally settled on openrouter + ds4 pro. The more intensive days cost me $1 and I set a $2 weekly limit which I've never hit the past 3 weeks, to me it's way cheaper than most subscriptions and I don't have to worry about maximizing my weekly quota/resets.

jingpostmedia 2mo ago

[flagged]

deleted 2mo ago

[deleted]

Flere-Imsaho 2mo ago

Indeed. My fellow software engineers keep complaining about using up all their Claude tokens within an hour... Whilst I'll be rocking DS flash for the entire day. Sure it gets a few things wrong here and there, but that's when you pull out the Claude models or whatever for those tricky tasks.

felixgallo 2mo ago
what plan are your 'fellow software engineers' using? I have a hard time even using up the Fable part of my allowance in a week of coding.
- Flere-Imsaho 2mo ago
  I'm not sure to be fair, but they do have constant "token anxiety", which I simply don't have anymore since using v4 flash.
  - dominotw 2mo ago
    why do they do if their employers are paying for it?
    - 0xc133 2mo ago
      because once they run out of tokens they can’t do their jobs anymore
      - Demiurge 2mo ago
        This is a sad state of affair. I'm faster with the LLM, but I sure as hell can do everything just like I could, as before the current state of things.
        dominotw 2mo ago
        Its not because the whole thread is made up bs about imaginary friends.

deleted 2mo ago

[deleted]

refulgentis 2mo ago

FWIW, looking at pricing myself, it needs to 5x the tokens to get the same results as GPT 5.6 Luna at a much lower TPS. (doesn't obviate the fact that the pressure causes incumbents to push and push to optimize, thank you Deepseek!)

singingtoday 2mo ago

I have one of my projects on DeepSeek and it blows my mind how I can use tens of millions of tokens for pennies. I don't find it suitable for everything, but there's some tasks it crushes for what feels like almost free.