DeepSeek V3.1 API Providers: Which One Should You Choose?

DeepSeek V3.1 represents a significant evolution in open-source large language models, particularly for developers focused on code-generation tasks.

For developers, accessing DeepSeek V3.1 via API providers eliminates the need for massive hardware—requiring about 1424 GB VRAM on 8x H100 GPUs for self-hosting—allowing focus on integration and scaling.

This blog evaluates three prominent providers—Novita AI, Together AI, and Deepinfra—based on key factors: cost and pricing, performance and reliability, scalability, security and compliance, ease of integration and documentation, support and community, vendor experience, functionality, and localization.

Key Factors in Chossing an AI API Providers

Selecting an AI API provider involves a multifaceted evaluation to ensure the chosen solution not only meets immediate project requirements but also supports long-term growth and compliance.

Factor	Description
Cost & Pricing	Transparent models to fit budget
Performance & Reliability	Low latency, high uptime
Scalability	Handle growth seamlessly
Security & Compliance	Data protection and regulations
Functionality	Model fit for tasks
Integration Ease	Docs and tools for setup
Support & Community	Responsive help and feedback
Vendor Experience	Track record and expertise
Localization	Optimized Language/cultural support

Core Considerations

When selecting an AI API provider, balance your project’s specific needs—like code generation or natural language tasks—with budget constraints. Factors such as functionality and compatibility ensure the API aligns with your tech stack, while pricing models like token-based or subscription tiers help manage costs effectively.

Technical Aspects

Focus on model quality, latency (ideally under 2-5 seconds for interactive use), and scalability for handling increased loads. Security features, including encryption and compliance with standards like GDPR, protect data integrity.

Additional Factors

Consider vendor experience, customization options, and localization support if dealing with specific languages or regions. Community feedback and pilot testing can reveal real-world performance, helping avoid lock-in risks.

Deepseek V3.1 API Providers

Research suggests that when selecting a DeepSeek V3.1 API provider, factors like cost, performance, and scalability play key roles. Novita AI, Together AI, Deepinfra supports the model’s hybrid modes, but differences in pricing and speed could impact real-world applications.

Deepseek V3.1 API Providers-Novita AI: Affordable for Quick Deployments

Novita AI has positioned itself as an early adopter of DeepSeek V3.1, including the Terminus variant, which enhances consistency in outputs for coding and tool use.

Cost and Pricing:

Novita AI provides APIs with 131K context, and costs of $0.27/input and $1.0/output, supporting structured output and function calling, which delivers strong support for maximizing Deepseek V3.1’s code agent potential.

Performance and Reliability:

Novita supports a 131K context window, thinking modes, and structured outputs, with fast time-to-first-token (TTFT) and tokens-per-second (TPS) demonstrated in playground tests.

Scalability:

Designed for serverless and on-demand GPU deployments, it handles growth via auto-scaling, suitable for agentic tasks in code workflows.Designed for serverless and on-demand GPU deployments, it handles growth through auto-scaling and is suitable for agentic tasks in code workflows. Novita AI provides serverless GPUs and a spot-pricing model that can reduce costs by up to 50%, while allowing seamless switching between different GPUs to maintain scalability; see the referenced blog for details.Spot vs. On-Demand Instances: Quick Decision Guide

Instance (GPU)	On-Demand Price	Spot Price
RTX 5090	$0.50 per hour	$0.25 per hour
RTX 4090	$0.35 per hour	$0.18 per hour
High frequency RTX 4090	$0.69per hour	$0.35 per hour
H200 SXM	$3.25per hour	$1.63per hour
A100 SXM	/	$1.60per hour
B200	$3.84per hour	$1.92per hour
H100 SXM	$1.00per hour	$0.90per hour

Security and Compliance: As a cloud provider, it includes standard encryption and API key auth; no major breaches reported in reviews.

Ease of Integration and Documentation: Documentation covers completions and chat endpoints effectively.

By using Novita AI’s service, you can bypass the regional restrictions of Claude Code. Novita also provides SLA guarantees with 99% service stability, making it especially suitable for high-frequency scenarios such as code generation and automated testing.

In addition to Deepseek V3.1, users can also access powerful coding models like Kimi-k2 and Qwen3 Coder, whose performance is close to Claude’s closed-source Sonnet 4, at less than one-fifth of the cost. Novita AI also provides access guides for Trae and Qwen Code, which can be found in the following articles.

Meanwhile, you can easily connect Novita AI with partner platforms like Continue, AnythingLLM,LangChain, Dify and Langflow through official connectors and step-by-step integration guides.

Support and Community: 24/7 support via Discord and email, with active X presence for updates; community feedback on Reddit praises affordability but notes occasional quality dips compared to official APIs.

Vendor Experience and Functionality: Experienced in LLM APIs and GPU cloud, Novita excels in code-specific features like function calling.

Localization: Primarily English-focused, with some multilingual model handling.

Overall, Novita AI suits budget-conscious developers needing fast, feature-packed access for code-gen experiments.

Deepseek V3.1 API Providers-Together AI: Optimized for High-Performance Production

Together AI emphasizes infrastructure for massive models like DeepSeek V3.1, leveraging its AI Native Cloud for seamless hybrid mode operation.

Cost and Pricing:

Estimated at $0.60 input/$1.70 output per million tokens, it’s premium-priced but justified by optimizations like ATLAS, which adapts to workloads for efficiency. Transparent scaling helps manage TCO.

Performance and Reliability:

ATLAS delivers up to 4x faster inference and 500 TPS on V3.1, with 99.9% uptime SLAs ensuring production stability.

Scalability: Auto-scaling and load balancing support 10x-100x volume increases, perfect for evolving agentic applications.

Together AI supports two billing models. Instant Clusters provide fully on-demand, self-service GPUs with higher hourly rates and no capacity guarantees, suited for short tasks and rapid scaling. Reserved Clusters offer dedicated, guaranteed GPU capacity at lower prices, suitable for sustained workloads and large-scale training.

Security and Compliance: Robust features like encryption and compliance with standards, with no data privacy concerns in reviews.

Ease of Integration and Documentation: Comprehensive SDKs, RESTful APIs, and detailed docs reduce setup time; supports fine-tuning and multimodal if needed.

Support and Community: Priority channels and active forums; X and Reddit praise speed improvements, though some note higher costs.

Vendor Experience and Functionality: Strong track record in AI infra, with V3.1’s reasoning modes fully optimized; excels in structured tool calling.

Localization: Good for global users, with potential for language-specific optimizations.

Together AI is best for teams requiring reliable, high-speed inference in production code environments.

Deepseek V3.1 API Providers-DeepInfra: Inference-focused Tools

Cost and Pricing: The cheapest at $0.27 input/$1.00 output, with caching at $0.216, making it ideal for cost-sensitive developers

Performance and Reliability: Around 79 TPS for similar models, with prompt caching for low latency; reliable for tool use, though less emphasized on uptime SLAs. User reviews note high quality (97% of official).

Scalability: Supports horizontal scaling via API.Deepinfra’ system will automatically scale the model to more hardware based on your needs. They limit each account to 200 concurrent requests.

Security and Compliance: Standard encryption and auth.

Ease of Integration and Documentation: clear docs for quick starts.

Support and Community: Reddit feedback highlights affordability and speed, with mixed model reviews but strong provider trust.

Vendor Experience and Functionality: Experienced in ML inference, with V3.1’s improvements in consistency for coding agents.

Localization: Focuses on global access.

DeepInfra appeals to indie developers prioritizing low costs and easy tool integration for code tasks.

DeepSeek V3.1’s heavy compute demands make API providers essential. Novita AI delivers low-cost access and strong code-oriented features; Together AI provides high-performance production infrastructure; DeepInfra focuses on affordability and lean inference execution. The core value lies in matching DeepSeek V3.1’s hybrid modes to the provider that best balances budget, speed, and scaling needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Novita AI is an AI cloud platform that offers developers an easy way to deploy AI models using our simple API, while also providing an affordable and reliable GPU cloud for building and scaling.

Recommend Reading

• How to Access Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B in Trae with Extended Context Support
• Kimi K2 Thinking VRAM Limits Explained for Cost-Constrained Developers
• How to Use GLM-4.6 in Cursor to Boost Productivity for Small Teams