# DeepSeek vs Crusoe

> DeepSeek sells its own models at rock-bottom first-party prices, with data stored in China. Crusoe hosts DeepSeek V4 Pro among other open weights, with dedicated options.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/deepseek-vs-crusoe · By The Subconscious Team · Updated September 30, 2026

## How they compare

Crusoe serves DeepSeek V4 Pro, so this is partly a first-party versus third-party choice on the same weights. DeepSeek's API offers V4.1 Flash at $0.30 in and $1.20 out at peak and V4 Pro at $1.32 in and $3.96 out at peak, with off-peak hours at exactly half price, 1M context and 384K max output. Cache hits cost a few cents per million or less. Crusoe's serverless catalog spans $0.05 to $1.74 in and $0.20 to $4.40 out across its models, with cached input well below list via MemoryAlloy, a cluster-wide KV cache. DeepSeek runs around 35 tokens per second on V4 Pro. Crusoe claims up to 9.9x faster time to first token versus vLLM on prefix-heavy work, its own benchmark.

The deciding factor for many teams is data location. Data on DeepSeek's hosted API is stored in China, a hard stop for many enterprises, and frequent retirements and repricing keep cost models moving. The August 2026 switch to peak pricing raised V4 Flash output from a flat $0.28 to $0.66 off-peak. Crusoe offers DeepSeek plus GLM, Kimi, Gemma, gpt-oss and Nemotron from one vendor that builds its own data centers, with LoRA fine-tuning, dedicated endpoints with SLAs and raw GPUs. DeepSeek's MIT weights also allow self-hosting anywhere. Pick DeepSeek's API for the lowest first-party price when data residency is not a concern, and Crusoe for DeepSeek weights without sending traffic to DeepSeek's API.

## What each one does

### DeepSeek

DeepSeek is the Chinese lab whose open-weight models reset price expectations for the whole market. Its API now serves two models, both with 1M context and 384K max output. V4.1 Flash shipped September 10, 2026 with built-in image understanding at $0.30 in and $1.20 out at peak. V4 Pro, generally available since August 13, costs $1.32 in and $3.96 out at peak. Cache hits cost a few cents per million or less, and the weights ship on Hugging Face under an MIT license.

### Crusoe

Crusoe started in 2018 turning wasted natural gas into power for computing and has since become a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company: it sources energy, builds data centers and rents GPUs through Crusoe Cloud. It designed and built the Abilene, Texas campus behind the OpenAI and Oracle Stargate project, planned at 1.2 GW, and in March 2026 announced an adjacent 900 MW campus for Microsoft. On September 17, 2026 it closed the first part of a $3.9B Series F at a $30.9B post-money valuation, and it reports over 6 GW of contracted capacity. Crusoe Cloud lists GB200 NVL72, B200 and AMD MI355X by quote, with H100 at $3.90 and H200 at $4.29 per GPU-hour on demand.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose DeepSeek for

- Lowest first-party price on DeepSeek models
- Off-peak batch work at half price
- Very cheap cache hits on long prefixes

### Choose Crusoe for

- Running DeepSeek V4 Pro without DeepSeek's hosted API
- Fine-tuning DeepSeek or GLM with LoRA
- Dedicated endpoints with SLAs

## At a glance

| Attribute | DeepSeek | Crusoe |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights (MIT) | Open weights |
| Flagship models | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, V4 Pro | DeepSeek V4, GLM 5.3, Kimi K2.6, Nemotron 3 |
| Speed | ~35 tok/s on V4 Pro | Up to 9.9x faster TTFT vs vLLM (vendor claim) |
| Price | Off-peak hours at half price | $0.05–$1.74 in, $0.20–$4.40 out per 1M |
| Customization | Open weights to fine-tune | Serverless LoRA fine-tuning |
| Deployment | First-party API, Hugging Face weights | Serverless, self-serve and tailored dedicated, raw GPUs |
| Long context | 1M, 384K max output | Varies by model; cluster-wide KV cache |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between DeepSeek and Crusoe?

DeepSeek sells its own models at rock-bottom first-party prices, with data stored in China. Crusoe hosts DeepSeek V4 Pro among other open weights, with dedicated options.

### When should I choose DeepSeek over Crusoe?

Lowest first-party price on DeepSeek models; Off-peak batch work at half price; Very cheap cache hits on long prefixes.

### When should I choose Crusoe over DeepSeek?

Running DeepSeek V4 Pro without DeepSeek's hosted API; Fine-tuning DeepSeek or GLM with LoRA; Dedicated endpoints with SLAs.

### Is DeepSeek or Crusoe cheaper?

DeepSeek: Off-peak hours at half price. Crusoe: $0.05–$1.74 in, $0.20–$4.40 out per 1M. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

### Which has more context, DeepSeek or Crusoe?

DeepSeek: 1M, 384K max output. Crusoe: Varies by model; cluster-wide KV cache.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs DeepSeek](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-deepseek.md), [Subconscious vs Crusoe](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-crusoe.md).

Full profiles: [DeepSeek](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/deepseek.md), [Crusoe](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/crusoe.md).