The cost of using the DeepSeek-V4-Pro model depends on the provider and the time of day. DeepSeek charges per token, while Ollama offers a subscription model at $20 per month, which includes $60 of usage credits. Prices for tokens vary significantly based on peak hours and cache hits.
Peak hours differ by provider. DeepSeek applies double rates on weekdays from 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC. Ollama applies double rates on weekdays from 12:00–18:00 UTC. For users working during Moscow daytime and evening hours, Ollama's peak pricing can result in costs up to four times higher than DeepSeek's.
Technical constraints also differ. Ollama's Pro plan limits users to three simultaneous requests. In contrast, DeepSeek supports 500 concurrent requests for V4-Pro and 2500 for Flash. DeepSeek integration allows native access to reasoning settings and context compression, whereas Ollama uses an OpenAI-compatible interface.
For a single agent working during Moscow business hours, direct payment via DeepSeek is more cost-effective. Ollama's subscription is better suited for users requiring a single billing account for multiple open-source models or those needing a fixed monthly expenditure cap. Users can integrate both providers to optimize costs based on schedules.
