There's more to inference than just the input/output token cost. Caching has a massive impact.
replyDeepseek charges $0.0028 per cache read on Openrouter. The next cheapest is $0.018.
That's a massive difference and quickly adds up on coding sessions (which often hit 95%+ cached tokens).
90%+ cache hit rate is common, and so you'll see on places like openrouter that Deepseek cache cost is indeed a magnitude cheaper than the rest.
replyMy usage thus far from api.deepseek.com
reply - input_cache_hit_tokens: 1,265,646,976 x 0.0000000028 = $3.5438115328
- input_cache_miss_tokens: 18,208,088 x 0.00000014 = $2.54913232
- output_tokens: 9,615,178 x 0.00000028 = $2.69224984
- request_count: 10,837 (no price)
Cache:
- Hit: 1,265,646,976
- Miss: 18,208,088
- Total input tokens: 1,283,855,064
So your cost would be $40.68 with another provider that has one less zero in the cache hit price.
replyCached input tokens are what drives most costs.
reply