At 10 requests/user/day (totaling 15,000 queries/mo), running RAG / search-augmented answers on DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $111.54 / month ($2.231 / user / mo).
RAG / search-augmented answers for a 50 active users (private beta) audience means 500 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 DeepSeek V4 Pro is $0.007436, of which $76.56/mo comes back from prompt caching. Per active user that's $2.231/mo — the number to hold against your pricing tier and gross margin. Charging at least $11.154/user/mo keeps gross margin at or above 80%.
Quick answer
For 50 Active Users, RAG / search-augmented answers on DeepSeek V4 Pro is modeled at 15,000 requests per month, costing $111.54 per month or $2.231 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 50 Active Users generating 15,000 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 (50 Active Users) | Cost / User / Mo | Annual Spend | Context Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Pro (Current) | deepseek | $111.54 | $2.231 | $1,338.48 | 1,000,000 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | openai | $222.00 | $4.44 | $2,664.00 | 1,050,000 |
| GPT-5.4 Workhorse | openai | $277.50 | $5.55 | $3,330.00 | 256,000 |
| o3-mini | openai | $132.00 | $2.64 | $1,584.00 | 200,000 |
| o4-mini | openai | $115.50 | $2.31 | $1,386.00 | 256,000 |
| o1-mini | openai | $132.00 | $2.64 | $1,584.00 | 128,000 |
At 10 queries per user/day with DeepSeek V4 Pro, the estimated cost is $2.231 per monthly active user (MAU). Total monthly bill for 50 Active Users is $111.54.
Assuming a 50% cache hit rate on repeated system and context tokens, prompt caching saves $76.56 per month ($918.72/year) on DeepSeek V4 Pro.
With a direct COGS of $2.231 per user/month on DeepSeek V4 Pro, charging at least $11.154 per user/month ensures an 80%+ software gross margin.