China's AI models compete on cost efficiency for training and inference

DeepSeek trained its V3 model for roughly $5.58 million. For context, US competitors routinely spend tens to hundreds of millions on frontier-level models.

In May 2026, DeepSeek permanently slashed prices on its V4-Pro model by 75%. Cached input costs dropped to as low as RMB 0.025 per million tokens.

DeepSeek isn’t alone in this race to the bottom. Chinese firm 01.ai reportedly offers inference at approximately 14 cents per million tokens, positioning Chinese API pricing as the lowest in the world.

Chinese AI models on OpenRouter have achieved 5x growth in volume, driven almost entirely by their cost advantages over US alternatives.

How they’re doing it