Fact

DeepSeek — Description: DeepSeek-R1 final training cost reported as $294K for RL stage; full pipeline including base model ~$5.6M

partial85% confidence

1 evidence check

Last checked: 3/31/2026

The source confirms the $294K figure for R1 RL training and confirms it excludes the base model cost. However, the source states the base model cost as '$6 million', not '$5.6M' as claimed. The claim's total of ~$5.6M appears to be an error or outdated figure, as $294K + $6M = $6.294M. The core claim about the $294K being RL-stage only is confirmed, but the total pipeline cost figure is inaccurate per this source.

Evidence — 1 source, 1 check

mlq.ai/news/deepseek-reveals-r1-model-training-cost-just-294000-in-peer-reviewed-nature-publication/(1 check)

partial85%primaryHaiku 4.5 · 3/31/2026

Found: Source states: '$294,000 figure covers the reasoning-focused R1 model's training' and 'does not include the $6 million DeepSeek reported spending to build the general-purpose large language model (LLM…

Note: The source confirms the $294K figure for R1 RL training and confirms it excludes the base model cost. However, the source states the base model cost as '$6 million', not '$5.6M' as claimed. The claim's total of ~$5.6M appears to be an error or outdated figure, as $294K + $6M = $6.294M. The core claim about the $294K being RL-stage only is confirmed, but the total pipeline cost figure is inaccurate per this source.

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Record type: fact

Record ID: f_WjkJd6O9vA