DeepSeek Made Crystal Clear · chapter 4: What DeepSeek Actually Costs
The weekly peak clock
2026-11-04
Peak is the exception, not the rule, across a full week.
Below: the paragraph from the book that builds this idea, then the diagram itself (Figure 4.2), and a recap. About a minute of reading.
DeepSeek's own documentation states it exactly: "Peak hours are 01:00 - 04:00 and 06:00 - 10:00 UTC, Monday through Friday (all other hours are off-peak)." Read that closely and the shape becomes clear: peak covers only two windows, totaling 7 hours, on each of 5 weekdays, which is 35 hours out of the 168 hours in a full week. Every weekend hour, and most weekday hours, are off-peak by default. Off-peak is exactly half of peak on every single column of the table above, no exceptions.
Recap
- The idea: Peak is the exception, not the rule, across a full week.
- The picture: Figure 4.2, from chapter 4 ("What DeepSeek Actually Costs") of DeepSeek Made Crystal Clear.
- Go deeper: the chapter builds this step by step, with recipes and sources at the end.
This diagram is one of many in DeepSeek Made Crystal Clear.
Every chapter opens with the gist, draws the hard ideas, and ends with recipes and sources.
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