I'm using oh my pi with Kimi K3 as the planner and DeepSeek Flash 0731 as the implementer, with OpenRouter as the provider.

Any suggestions for a better configuration? I mostly need Opus 4.6 + Claude Code alternative. I don't need Fable level capabilities, I add one new feature at a time and approve the code before shipping it. Then test and open a PR.

Usually both Fable and Opus suggest dumb ideas but are good implementers once I tweak the idea, approve the code, and add unit and production tests.

I'm OK spending max $100/month on APIs, ideally with Zero data retention. I only need a few hours a day of coding. I don't want agents running all the time; I figure I can stay on top to each feature and wrap my head around the product and new suggestions as long as I don't build too much at once.

I'm still on a Claude Max $100 plan, but it's barely usable anymore—one call and I hit 20–30% of the 5h window on Opus 4.8. Opus 5 seems tuned to make messes, and Fable burns tokens for a level of capability I don't actually need.

I'm guessing this is almost entirely about the incredibly low cache read prices. Few have come close to them, nothing has a bigger effect on (a typical) session price, and with the price of RAM right now, they have to be the biggest pain point for them right now? A 10x increase in cache read would be a significant increase, yet would still keep them cheaper than every other provider of their model (at least based on the prices at https://openrouter.ai/deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro#providers)

Not surprised, DeepSeek v4-flash is basically free right now. I've been using it for a custom agent that is more about orchestrating a lot of the "chores" of using a computer (calendar checking, reading slack channels for me, reading my email etc) and it's basically free. I think I've spent $2 in API credits in the past 60 days

FWIW, I have found Xiaomi’s MiMo-V2.5-Pro to be a pretty cost-effective alternative. https://mimo.mi.com/models/en-US/mimo-v2.5-pro

While it won’t cover everything DeepSeek does, it handles sophisticated tasks quite well. I found it after spotting it on a chart of different models and it was listed as being near Deepseek v4 Flash’s price/performance levels.

I have noticed by the way that DeepSeek’s API has been pretty slow the past couple of days. This feels like a demand-driven move more than anything. Good thing I invested in an eGPU!

Link redirects to a login page.

Well it was nice while it lasted. Built so much stuff for basically free. I can only thank them for that.

I guess this means that this powerful model for very cheap concept does not work?

I don't think you should submit links to logged-in dashboards on HN. For those who don't have a Deepseek account, this is just a banner reading:

We plan to raise the overall pricing for DeepSeek API services in the near future, with a significant increase expected. Please plan your usage accordingly. The specific pricing plan will be subject to official notice.

2x DGX Spark runs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 quite well and I already reimplemented a few classical games with it in a few hours in OpenCode with minimal hand-holding. I am expecting the inference price to collapse over time and not increase, at least for models that are able to do like 95-99% of work quickly and only the most problematic parts requiring something better.

Bound to happen. I’ve been using the new flash and it’s insane the value I’ve gotten, I wish I used it more for some other homelab things.

I have to assume this means that they are about to release the final version of v4 Pro and it uses more resources than the preview did

DeepSeek was such a workhorse... I've had some pretty decent results with Hy3 and Nemotron too, but they're not the same. I'll probably have to switch to them (or find other alternatives) depending on how much DeepSeek raises prices.

The link takes me to a login page.

Is there currently a lot of difference between deepseek's own prices and other provider's prices of deepseek models?

I guess they invested in some new infra and want to make that back over the next 10 months [0]:

> For us, a reasonable profit means roughly this: we buy a batch of servers, and we recover the cost in about ten months. Given the risks and the upfront investment, even if we depreciate a server financially over three or five years, commercially we think a ten-month payback is enough. That is the logic behind our current API pricing. For V3.2 Flash and other models, the standard is the same: recover the cost of the equipment in ten months.

[0]: https://thechatr.ai/blog/deepseek-liang-wenfeng-investor-mee...

I expect 5X cache input price hike, and 2X usual input/output hike.

Looks like a second order effect to them not raising their round

Even if DeepSeek is better than the American models, I won't be using it unless there is a flat-rate monthly plan. This is only real way it's useful.

If not, the cost outweighs whatever value I might have gotten from it.

From the announcement:

We plan to raise the overall pricing for DeepSeek API services in the near future, with a significant increase expected. Please plan your usage accordingly. The specific pricing plan will be subject to official notice.

Now, the question remains, what does that "significant" mean? Would it still be cheaper than the competition, or did they realize they are too cheap for what they offer?

Given that many inference providers offer DS4 flash for more or less the same input and output token price as DeepSeek, they have good profits even with todays low prices.

Does this mean other providers API prices for Deepseek models will also increase?

One thing I struggle with is the value proposition. One day on a specific task I'll feel like the model saved me a couple hours of work. Then days like yesterday, the model cost me half the day with context loss, repeating steps already completed, crashing/becoming unresponsive, making unpardonable mistakes in logic.

Please don't tell me I'm holding it wrong.

- The Launch: DS 4 officially releases

- The Big Promise: Announces a major price cut for Summer 2026, powered by cost savings from a shift to Huawei chips

- The Hype Train: Launches a flash promotion cutting prices in half, follows up by announcing the 50% discount is now permanent

- The Reality Check: Summer arrives, and Huawei's chips flops

- The Retreat: Forced to quietly reorder Nvidia chips

- The Damage Control: Introduces "off peak hours" pricing to shift demand

- The Aftermath: Announces a significant price hike

Ready to IPO :^)

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