This pair spans almost the whole market: a mid-tier model priced in cents against OpenAI's top flagship. The comparison is less about which is cheaper than about which tasks justify the premium.
DeepSeek V4-Pro is about 15× cheaper on input and 25× on output than GPT-6 Astra off-peak; during DeepSeek's weekday peak window the gap halves. Astra is a flagship with image input and no time-of-day pricing; V4-Pro is text-only. Many teams route bulk text work to V4-Pro and reserve Astra for the hardest requests.
| DeepSeek V4-Pro | GPT-6 Astra | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Tier | Mid-tier | Flagship |
| Input / 1M tokens | $0.66 | $10.00 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $1.98 | $50.00 |
| Cache hit / 1M | $0.022 | $1.00 |
| Cache write / 1M | — | $12.50 |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Notes | A planned Sep 14, 2026 reroute to V4.1-Flash rates was reversed after user pushback; billing unchanged since the Aug 13, 2026 GA build. Off-peak rate shown; peak (01:00-04:00 & 06:00-10:00 UTC weekdays) is 2x: $1.32/$3.96 | New top flagship (Sep 3, 2026); rolling out to Plus/Pro/Business/Enterprise; >272K tokens: $20/$75, cache $2 |
DeepSeek V4-Pro is 15× cheaper on input tokens ($0.66 vs $10.00 per 1M). DeepSeek V4-Pro is 25× cheaper on output tokens ($1.98 vs $50.00 per 1M).
| Workload | DeepSeek V4-Pro | GPT-6 Astra | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot 10,000 conversations × (2,000 input + 400 output tokens) | $21.12 | $400 | DeepSeek V4-Pro saves $379 |
| Document Q&A 1,000 questions × (30,000 input + 800 output tokens) | $21.38 | $340 | DeepSeek V4-Pro saves $319 |
| Coding agent session 4M input tokens (90% cache hits) + 150,000 output tokens | $0.64 | $15.10 | DeepSeek V4-Pro saves $14.46 |
Standard rates per 1M tokens from data on this site. The coding-agent row assumes 90% of input is read from the prompt cache (full input price where a model has no cache rate). Cache-write fees, batch discounts and long-context surcharges listed in the notes are not included. Updated November 2, 2026.
you process large volumes of text — classification, extraction, summarisation, code — and your evals show mid-tier quality is enough.
you need flagship-tier results, image inputs, or OpenAI's platform and enterprise terms, and volume is moderate enough that the rate difference is affordable.
With a gap this wide, the useful question is which share of requests needs Astra. A router that sends easy requests to V4-Pro and escalates hard ones to Astra captures most of the savings. Measure tokens per task on both: V4-Pro's thinking mode is on by default and can produce more output, though at $1.98 per 1M that rarely changes the conclusion.
DeepSeek doubles all V4-Pro rates from 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC on weekdays. Astra's rate is constant by hour but rises above 272K tokens (2× input, 1.5× output). A long-document job run off-peak on V4-Pro and the same job on Astra over 272K tokens is the widest gap of all.
OpenAI's Batch and Flex tiers halve Astra's price for latency-tolerant work. DeepSeek's lever is off-peak scheduling, plus its very low cache-hit rate ($0.022 off-peak) for repeated context.
At off-peak rates, about 15× on input and 25× on output. During DeepSeek's peak window, V4-Pro's rates double.
No. On this site V4-Pro is listed as a mid-tier model and Astra as a flagship.
No. DeepSeek lists vision as not supported for V4-Pro.
How we choose: prices come from each vendor's official pricing page and are re-checked every week. We take no affiliate fees, so rankings aren't for sale.