At 10 requests/user/day (totaling 300,000 queries/mo), running RAG / search-augmented answers on Together AI — DeepSeek V4 costs $1,425.00 / month ($1.425 / user / mo).
RAG / search-augmented answers for a 1,000 active users (seed stage saas) audience means 10,000 requests per day on average, each carrying 8,000 input and 500 output tokens at a 50% cacheable share — so the effective per-request cost on Together AI — DeepSeek V4 is $0.00475, of which $0.00/mo comes back from prompt caching. Per active user that's $1.425/mo — the number to hold against your pricing tier and gross margin. Charging at least $7.125/user/mo keeps gross margin at or above 80%.
Quick answer
For 1,000 Active Users, RAG / search-augmented answers on Together AI — DeepSeek V4 is modeled at 300,000 requests per month, costing $1,425.00 per month or $1.425 per active user.
Method & trust
This projection combines the selected active-user tier, requests per user per day, input/output tokens per request, and the modeled cache share. It is an operating estimate, not a provider invoice; production traffic and retries should be measured against it.
Total expected API invoice for 1,000 Active Users generating 300,000 queries.
Direct inference cost per MAU to model your SaaS pricing tiers and gross margins.
Savings generated by exploiting 50% cache hits on prompt context.
| Model | Provider | Monthly Spend (1,000 Active Users) | Cost / User / Mo | Annual Spend | Context Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Together AI — DeepSeek V4 (Current) | together | $1,425.00 | $1.425 | $17,100.00 | 1,000,000 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | openai | $4,440.00 | $4.44 | $53,280.00 | 1,050,000 |
| GPT-5.4 Workhorse | openai | $5,550.00 | $5.55 | $66,600.00 | 256,000 |
| o3-mini | openai | $2,640.00 | $2.64 | $31,680.00 | 200,000 |
| o4-mini | openai | $2,310.00 | $2.31 | $27,720.00 | 256,000 |
| o1-mini | openai | $2,640.00 | $2.64 | $31,680.00 | 128,000 |
At 10 queries per user/day with Together AI — DeepSeek V4, the estimated cost is $1.425 per monthly active user (MAU). Total monthly bill for 1,000 Active Users is $1,425.00.
Assuming a 50% cache hit rate on repeated system and context tokens, prompt caching saves $0.00 per month ($0.00/year) on Together AI — DeepSeek V4.
With a direct COGS of $1.425 per user/month on Together AI — DeepSeek V4, charging at least $7.125 per user/month ensures an 80%+ software gross margin.