DeepSeek V4 Stable Release Set for Mid-July with First Time-of-Day API Pricing
DeepSeek
DeepSeek announced on June 30, 2026 that the official stable release of DeepSeek V4 is scheduled for mid-July, graduating from the April 24 preview. The announcement introduces the lab's first time-of-day API pricing: rates double during peak hours (9 AM–12 PM and 2–6 PM daily). V4 Pro carries 1.6T total / 49B active parameters and a 1M-token context window; V4 Flash has 284B total / 13B active parameters with the same context.
Why it matters
First open-weight model family with a 1M-token context window at frontier scale. Peak-hour pricing signals DeepSeek is managing real infrastructure pressure — a notable inflection for an open-source lab.
Importance: 3/5
First time-of-day API pricing from a major open-weight lab; mid-July stable release date for V4 with 1M-token context at 49B active params