R1 0528 API pricing
DeepSeek · Mid-range price tier · MIT · released 2025-05. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $182.50 on R1 0528; the next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier for this workload, GLM 4.6, does it for $175.00. R1 0528 has held the same list price since 2026-08-15 and is the 10th cheapest of 113 models in the Mid-range price tier. None of its 3 hosts undercuts the price we quote. It is rated a stable release but does not meet all four criteria of the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $0.50 per 1M tokens
- Output: $2.15 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.35 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 164K tokens
- Arena ELO: 1428 as of 2026-11-08
Market position
On blended price ($1.655 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 92% of models in the Mid-range price tier: 10th cheapest of 113. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 44% of priced text models in the catalogue: 170th cheapest of 303. Its Arena ELO of 1428 ranks 69th of the 160 models that carry one, tied with 2 others, above 56% of them. With an Arena score of 1428, R1 0528 clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1420+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1530 on Arena scores as of 8 Nov 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
R1 0528 is open source: its weights are published under MIT, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token. Its published size is 671B parameters. Listed capabilities: Text, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 164K context window once costs $0.082 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 3 different hosts. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
The price we quote is already the cheapest of the 3 hosts: DeepInfra at $0.50 input / $2.15 output per 1M tokens. It serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. All of them charge within 10% of one another.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Precision |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepInfra (price we quote) | $0.50 | $2.15 | fp4 |
| SiliconFlow (price we quote) | $0.50 | $2.18 | fp8 |
| StreamLake | $0.571 | $2.286 | not declared |
List prices as published on 2026-11-12, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown. These hosts do not all serve the model at the same numeric precision, so the cheapest is not a like-for-like substitute for the dearest.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where DeepSeek publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $169 – $183 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $251 – $272 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $743 – $758 |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $505 – $512 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $558 – $580 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $197 – $204 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $247 – $250 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $882 – $945 |
Price history
R1 0528 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.50 input / $2.15 output per 1M tokens. No list price change since tracking began on 2026-08-15. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
Alternatives to R1 0528
2 of the 4 comparable models below cost less than R1 0528: MiMo-V2.5 undercuts it by 8%, at the same Arena score.
- Next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier: GLM 4.6 (Zhipu) at $1.55 blended, 6% less.
- Next more expensive: Mistral Large 4 (Mistral) at $1.68 blended, 2% more.
The nearest models in the Mid-range price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against R1 0528.
- MiMo-V2.5 (Xiaomi): $0.40 in / $2.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1428 (8% cheaper, same Arena ELO)
- Grok 4.6 (xAI): $2.00 in / $6.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1430 (190% more expensive, 2 ELO points higher)
- GLM 4.5 (Zhipu): $0.60 in / $2.20 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1430 (4% more expensive, 2 ELO points higher)
- Mistral Medium 3.1 (Mistral): $0.40 in / $2.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1425 (8% cheaper, 3 ELO points lower)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google), 94% cheaper, 6 ELO points higher, out of 40 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: MiMo-V2.5-Pro (Xiaomi), 15% cheaper, 36 ELO points higher, out of 23 models in that price band.
Other models from DeepSeek
The 8 nearest to R1 0528 in price, of 13 other DeepSeek models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: $0.15 / $0.60
- DeepSeek V3: $0.32 / $0.89
- DeepSeek V3.1: $0.25 / $0.95
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus: $0.27 / $1.00
- DeepSeek V3 0324: $0.29 / $1.14
- DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp: $0.44 / $1.32
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423: $0.9553 / $1.9105
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813: $0.111 / $4.44
All 14 DeepSeek models and prices
Common questions about R1 0528 pricing
- How much does R1 0528 cost?
- R1 0528 costs $0.50 per 1M input tokens and $2.15 per 1M output tokens at DeepInfra, the host whose rate we quote. DeepInfra serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Which host is cheapest for R1 0528?
- The price we quote is already the cheapest of the 3 hosts: DeepInfra at $0.50 input / $2.15 output per 1M tokens. It serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. All of them charge within 10% of one another. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does R1 0528 offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.35 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12. No batch pricing is published.
- What would R1 0528 cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $183 on R1 0528 at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can R1 0528 be self-hosted?
- Yes. R1 0528 is open source: its weights are published under MIT, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token.
- Has the price of R1 0528 changed?
- R1 0528 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.50 input / $2.15 output per 1M tokens. No list price change since tracking began on 2026-08-15. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
Its weights are published, which changes what you may run yourself: the cost gap between open weights and proprietary APIs.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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