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Deprecations / Migrate

Migrate off deepseek-chat (legacy alias)

Deprecated

deepseek-chat (legacy alias) is deprecated and shuts down on 24 Jul 2026. DeepSeek's official replacement is DeepSeek-V4-Flash. The cheapest comparable model we track is Qwen-Flash (Alibaba) at $0.138 per 1M tokens blended.

Last verified: 13 Aug 2026 · sourced from official provider documentation

StatusDeprecatedDeepSeek
Shutdown date24 Jul 2026plan ahead
Official replacementDeepSeek-V4-Flash$0.175 /M blendedCheapest alternativeQwen-Flash$0.138 /M blended
What changes

deepseek-chat (legacy alias) → DeepSeek-V4-Flash

Moving to DeepSeek-V4-Flash means about the same blended price.

Specdeepseek-chat (legacy alias)DeepSeek-V4-Flash
StatusDeprecatedPreview
Blended price /1M$0.175$0.175
Input / output /1M$0.14 / $0.28$0.14 / $0.28
Context window1M1M
Max output384.000384.000
Modalitytexttext
Knowledge cutoff——

API string was deepseek-chat → switch to deepseek-v4-flash. See DeepSeek-V4-Flash's full spec sheet →

Cheapest alternatives

Budget-friendly replacements for deepseek-chat (legacy alias)

Generally-available models that match deepseek-chat (legacy alias)'s capabilities (and at least half its 1M context), ranked by blended price. Every number is computed from official catalog prices.

ModelBlended /1MInput / outputContext
Qwen-Flash
Alibaba
$0.138$0.05 / $0.41M
Llama 4 Scout (17B-16E Instruct)
Meta
$0.15$0.1 / $0.310M
Qwen3.5-Flash
Alibaba
$0.175$0.1 / $0.41M
FAQ

Migrating off deepseek-chat (legacy alias)

What replaces deepseek-chat (legacy alias)?

DeepSeek's recommended migration for deepseek-chat (legacy alias) is DeepSeek-V4-Flash. The cheapest comparable model in our catalog is Qwen-Flash (Alibaba) at $0.138/1M blended.

When is deepseek-chat (legacy alias) shut down?

deepseek-chat (legacy alias) is deprecated and scheduled to shut down on 24 Jul 2026. Migrate before that date to avoid a 404.

What is the cheapest alternative to deepseek-chat (legacy alias)?

Qwen-Flash (Alibaba) is the cheapest generally-available alternative we track that matches deepseek-chat (legacy alias)'s capabilities, at $0.05 per 1M input and $0.4 per 1M output tokens ($0.138/1M blended).

Browse the full deprecation watch → or see deepseek-chat (legacy alias)'s full spec sheet →