DeepSeek vs Qwen: Features, Pricing and User Reviews 2026

DeepSeek is free to use through its website and mobile app, with no cost for chat, writing help, or file uploads.

For developers, DeepSeek offers an API that is billed by usage, based on the number of tokens processed.

• DeepSeek-V4-Flash: Costs $0.14 per 1 million input tokens, $0.0028 per 1 million tokens on a cache hit, and $0.28 per 1 million output tokens.

• DeepSeek-V4-Pro: Costs $0.435 per 1 million input tokens, $0.003625 per 1 million tokens on a cache hit, and $0.87 per 1 million output tokens.

Charges are calculated by multiplying the number of tokens used by the price, and fees are taken automatically from your account balance. You only pay for what you actually use, so there is no fixed monthly fee for the API.

Qwen Studio, the chat assistant, is free to use for everyday chats, image help, and code help. For heavier use, Alibaba offers a Token Plan with paid tiers.

• Lite ($6/month): 2,500 credits every week plus 700 credits every 5 hours, good for running 1 to 2 agents at once.

• Standard ($18/month): 10,000 credits every week, four times the Lite credits, for running 3 to 4 agents at once.

• Pro ($68/month): 40,000 credits every week, sixteen times the Lite credits, for running 6 to 8 agents at once.

Yearly billing lowers the cost on every plan. Teams can also buy seats starting at $20 per seat a month, up to $200 per seat a month for the Max seat, each with its own monthly credit allowance.