After triggering price war, DeepSeek reverses course with surcharge on peak-hour API use

Chinese artificial intelligence unicorn DeepSeek is introducing peak-hour surcharges for its API services, bucking a fierce domestic price war it helped start, in which rivals have been aggressively undercutting each other to capture market share. The Chinese AI champion will double the price for access to its V4 AI models through its application programming interface (API) during peak hours – 9am to noon and 2pm to 6pm Beijing time – according to an email sent to service subscribers on Monda...

By Ben Jiang