Pricing
Creating a ZergRouter account is free. Platform-funded DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is metered per token at the rates below. Requests that use your own provider keys are billed by that provider.
Continue to ZergAI to check current account access. Existing users can sign in.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
| Token type | Price per 1M tokens |
|---|---|
| Input | $0.30 |
| Cached input | $0.03 |
| Output | $1.20 |
Cached input tokens are part of your input. They are charged at the cached rate instead of the input rate.
Use modal/deepseek-v4.1-flash for Chat Completions or the Codex Responses route. If your authenticated catalog lists fireworks/deepseek-v4p1-flash, it is billed at the same rates.
These rates cover DeepSeek V4.1 Flash only. Other Modal models are not included. For other providers, add your own API key and that provider bills you directly.
No-card trial
Each verified email gets one free DeepSeek V4.1 Flash trial. It ends at $1.00 of usage or 5,000,000 tokens, whichever comes first.
Input and output tokens both count, valued at the rates above. At those rates the $1.00 limit usually runs out first. The trial covers text requests only and never resets. Requests still running, and requests that did not complete, hold part of the allowance, so the trial can end before $1.00 of settled usage.
The trial needs no card and creates no Stripe subscription or invoice. Billing shows whether a trial is available and how much of it remains.
Paid usage
To keep using DeepSeek after the trial, add a card in Billing. Paid usage is metered at the rates above and billed monthly through Stripe.
There is no monthly base fee. The usage cap is a spending limit, not a charge.
Spending limits
Two account limits apply. They are separate and reset on different schedules.
- Usage cap: $5.00 of paid usage per billing month by default. Router reserves each request's maximum cost before sending it. A request that would go over the cap is refused with
429before DeepSeek receives it. Approving a higher monthly allowance for a Scholar workflow raises this same cap, so it also applies to DeepSeek requests. - Token quota: 5,000,000 tokens per account per calendar month (UTC). Tokens from successful platform-funded DeepSeek requests and from requests on your own provider keys count toward it.
Reaching one limit does not change the other. Shared platform capacity is also limited each UTC day. When it runs out, new platform-funded requests get 429 until the next UTC day.
You can also set a daily USD budget on each Router API key in Keys. Once a key's recorded spend for the UTC day reaches its budget, new requests on that key get 429. Requests already in flight can still add usage. Read how usage is recorded →
Pricing questions
Does the trial renew each month?
No. It is one-time per verified email address, even across accounts.
Who can use the trial?
A verified personal account that has never activated paid Router billing.
Does trial usage count toward the $5.00 usage cap?
No. Trial usage is tracked separately and never reduces your paid cap.
What is free?
Sign-up and Codex account monitoring are free. Requests on your own provider keys are billed by that provider. If you add your own Fireworks key, Fireworks bills you and the request is never charged to the Router meter.
What happens without a trial or a card?
Once your trial is used up, platform-funded DeepSeek requests are refused with 429 until you add a card in Billing. An account with no trial available and no active billing gets 402. Routes that use your own provider keys keep working within your token quota.
Where do I see what I have used?
Billing shows your remaining trial allowance, usage cap, settled usage and reserved usage. Usage shows token counts by model and client.