At 8 requests/user/day (totaling 2,400 queries/mo), running Agentic workflow on DeepSeek R1 (Reasoner) costs $35.10 / month ($3.51 / user / mo).
Total expected API invoice for 10 Active Users generating 2,400 queries.
Direct inference cost per MAU to model your SaaS pricing tiers and gross margins.
Savings generated by exploiting 65% cache hits on prompt context.
| Model | Provider | Monthly Spend (10 Active Users) | Cost / User / Mo | Annual Spend | Context Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek R1 (Reasoner) (Current) | deepseek | $35.10 | $3.51 | $421.20 | 64,000 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | openai | $122.88 | $12.288 | $1,474.56 | 1,050,000 |
| GPT-5.4 Workhorse | openai | $153.60 | $15.36 | $1,843.20 | 256,000 |
| o3-mini | openai | $87.12 | $8.712 | $1,045.44 | 200,000 |
| o4-mini | openai | $69.96 | $6.996 | $839.52 | 256,000 |
| o1-mini | openai | $87.12 | $8.712 | $1,045.44 | 128,000 |
At 8 queries per user/day with DeepSeek R1 (Reasoner), the estimated cost is $3.51 per monthly active user (MAU). Total monthly bill for 10 Active Users is $35.10.
Assuming a 65% cache hit rate on repeated system and context tokens, prompt caching saves $25.584 per month ($307.008/year) on DeepSeek R1 (Reasoner).
With a direct COGS of $3.51 per user/month on DeepSeek R1 (Reasoner), charging at least $17.55 per user/month ensures an 80%+ software gross margin.