Alibaba and DeepSeek Slash AI Model Prices

According to Artificial Analysis, a platform tracking AI pricing, DeepSeek's V4-Flash model is priced at about 2.5 cents per million tokens, which is significantly cheaper than competitors: Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI sells for 86 cents (prompt) and 69 cents (completion), GPT-5.6 Sol from OpenAI costs 1.86 dollars (prompt) and 150 cents (completion), and Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 is priced at 3.15 dollars with a 250-cent completion cost. This aggressive pricing has led to a price war, with Alibaba's Qwen3.8-Max and DeepSeek's models offered at a fraction of the cost of Western rivals. The report highlights that Alibaba's stock (9988.HK) rose 7% following the announcement, and Qwen3.8-Max has already surpassed Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 in the Arena.AI ranking. Analysts at Omdia warn that this competition could force a market correction, and DeepSeek is reportedly considering an IPO after its R1 and V3 models gained international attention in early 2025.