DeepSeek direct or via OpenRouter?

What the data shows

1. Finding 1

Location matters more than the route

* Singapore and Mumbai: direct 621–664 ms, routes 782–1,348 ms * Montreal: routes 422–692 ms, direct 732 ms See the chart by city → 2. Finding 2

DeepSeek's direct API was more consistent

* City spread: 36% direct, 89–219% via OpenRouter * Slow days: 0 direct, 1 via OpenRouter See the day-by-day chart → 3. Finding 3

Most of the wait isn't the network

* Network: 11–19 ms * First token: 462–883 ms See where the time goes →

Time to first token, day by day

Daily median time to first token, 27 August 2026 to 22 September 2026. Each point is the median of the compared cities’ daily medians, 5 requests per city.

30 days90 days

0200040006000 ms27 Aug22 SeptOpenRouter · Together, 18 September 2026: 5566 ms, every compared city well above its usual level.

• DeepSeek direct638 ms
• OpenRouter · Cloudflare637 ms
• OpenRouter · Together814 ms
• OpenRouter · DigitalOcean881 ms

A dot marks a day when every compared city was well above that provider’s usual level.

Show the numbers

| Day | DeepSeek direct | OpenRouter · Cloudflare | OpenRouter · Together | OpenRouter · DigitalOcean | | ----------------- | --------------- | ----------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------- | | 27 August 2026 | — | — | 722 ms | 949 ms | | 28 August 2026 | — | 646 ms | 661 ms | 498 ms | | 29 August 2026 | — | — | 602 ms | 756 ms | | 31 August 2026 | — | — | 580 ms | 650 ms | | 1 September 2026 | — | — | 936 ms | 913 ms | | 2 September 2026 | — | — | 1586 ms | 540 ms | | 3 September 2026 | — | 796 ms | 784 ms | 827 ms | | 4 September 2026 | — | 654 ms | — | 772 ms | | 5 September 2026 | 714 ms | 533 ms | 765 ms | 639 ms | | 6 September 2026 | 493 ms | 599 ms | — | 666 ms | | 7 September 2026 | 617 ms | — | 875 ms | 799 ms | | 8 September 2026 | 538 ms | 626 ms | 1057 ms | 805 ms | | 9 September 2026 | 434 ms | 820 ms | 759 ms | 988 ms | | 10 September 2026 | 781 ms | 743 ms | 829 ms | 764 ms | | 11 September 2026 | 611 ms | 729 ms | 697 ms | 705 ms | | 12 September 2026 | 645 ms | 873 ms | 859 ms | 736 ms | | 13 September 2026 | 676 ms | 650 ms | 689 ms | 843 ms | | 14 September 2026 | 802 ms | 748 ms | 757 ms | 792 ms | | 15 September 2026 | 902 ms | 1274 ms | 687 ms | 752 ms | | 16 September 2026 | 733 ms | 714 ms | — | 695 ms | | 17 September 2026 | 594 ms | 745 ms | — | 861 ms | | 18 September 2026 | 732 ms | 727 ms | 5566 ms ▲ | 806 ms | | 19 September 2026 | 630 ms | 631 ms | 663 ms | 789 ms | | 20 September 2026 | 619 ms | 725 ms | — | 845 ms | | 21 September 2026 | 700 ms | 638 ms | 1138 ms | 722 ms | | 22 September 2026 | 638 ms | 637 ms | 814 ms | 881 ms |

Does your location matter?

DeepSeek direct was faster from Singapore and Mumbai in our tests.

Typical time to first token by city: the median of every daily request from that city over the window.

050010001500 msDeepSeek direct from Amsterdam: 733 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 1138 ms.OpenRouter · Cloudflare from Amsterdam: 537 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 1192 ms.OpenRouter · Together from Amsterdam: 722 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 3297 ms.OpenRouter · DigitalOcean from Amsterdam: 608 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 931 ms.AmsterdamDeepSeek direct from San Francisco: 781 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 957 ms.OpenRouter · Cloudflare from San Francisco: 659 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 1856 ms.OpenRouter · Together from San Francisco: 627 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 5828 ms.OpenRouter · DigitalOcean from San Francisco: 546 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 895 ms.San FranciscoDeepSeek direct from Montreal: 732 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 989 ms.OpenRouter · Cloudflare from Montreal: 643 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 1465 ms.OpenRouter · Together from Montreal: 692 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 5470 ms.OpenRouter · DigitalOcean from Montreal: 422 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 2128 ms.MontrealDeepSeek direct from Singapore: 621 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 866 ms.OpenRouter · Cloudflare from Singapore: 782 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 1784 ms.OpenRouter · Together from Singapore: 967 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 5978 ms.OpenRouter · DigitalOcean from Singapore: 939 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 2065 ms.SingaporeDeepSeek direct from Tokyo: 575 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 1241 ms.OpenRouter · Cloudflare from Tokyo: 784 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 2088 ms.OpenRouter · Together from Tokyo: 724 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 5930 ms.OpenRouter · DigitalOcean from Tokyo: 1081 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 2012 ms.TokyoDeepSeek direct from Mumbai: 664 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 883 ms.OpenRouter · Cloudflare from Mumbai: 1211 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 2003 ms.OpenRouter · Together from Mumbai: 1183 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 4858 ms.OpenRouter · DigitalOcean from Mumbai: 1348 ms typical time to first token; slower requests 2321 ms.Mumbai

• DeepSeek direct
• OpenRouter · Cloudflare
• OpenRouter · Together
• OpenRouter · DigitalOcean
Show exact values

| City | DeepSeek direct | OpenRouter · Cloudflare | OpenRouter · Together | OpenRouter · DigitalOcean | | ------------- | ------------------- | ----------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------- | | Amsterdam | 733 msslower 1.1 s | 537 msslower 1.2 s | 722 msslower 3.3 s | 608 msslower 931 ms | | San Francisco | 781 msslower 957 ms | 659 msslower 1.9 s | 627 msslower 5.8 s | 546 msslower 895 ms | | Montreal | 732 msslower 989 ms | 643 msslower 1.5 s | 692 msslower 5.5 s | 422 msslower 2.1 s | | Singapore | 621 msslower 866 ms | 782 msslower 1.8 s | 967 msslower 6.0 s | 939 msslower 2.1 s | | Tokyo | 575 msslower 1.2 s | 784 msslower 2.1 s | 724 msslower 5.9 s | 1081 msslower 2.0 s | | Mumbai | 664 msslower 883 ms | 1211 msslower 2.0 s | 1183 msslower 4.9 s | 1348 msslower 2.3 s |

Bold is the lowest typical time in that city. "Slower" is the time 95% of the daily requests from that city finished within.

Where does the wait happen?

How much of the wait a closer server could remove, and how much is the provider’s own queue and model.

Both bars share one scale.

• DeepSeek direct
Network setup11 ms Waiting for the model451 ms First visible token after 462 ms in total.
• OpenRouter · Cloudflare
Network setup18 ms Waiting for the model717 ms First visible token after 735 ms in total.
• OpenRouter · Together
Network setup19 ms Waiting for the model779 ms First visible token after 798 ms in total.
• OpenRouter · DigitalOcean
Network setup18 ms Waiting for the model865 ms First visible token after 883 ms in total.

Network setup is finding the server, reaching it and setting up a secure connection. Waiting for the model is everything after that until the first visible token: queueing and the model’s own work.

Direct vs OpenRouter

9–22 September 2026 · six test locations

| Metric | Direct | Cloudflare | Together | DigitalOcean | | --------------- | ------ | ---------- | -------- | ------------ | | Typical TTFT | 698 ms | 721 ms | 723 ms | 774 ms | | Location spread | 36% | 126% | 89% | 219% |

Direct uses deepseek-v4-flash; the OpenRouter routes use deepseek-v4-flash-0731. Methodology →

Show full benchmark details ↓

| Detail | DeepSeek direct | OpenRouter · Cloudflare | OpenRouter · Together | OpenRouter · DigitalOcean | | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------- | ----------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------- | | Model | deepseek-v4-flash | deepseek-v4-flash-0731 | deepseek-v4-flash-0731 | deepseek-v4-flash-0731 | | Slower requests, p95 (median city) | 973 ms | 1820 ms | 5649 ms | 2039 ms | | Fastest location | Tokyo · 575 ms | Amsterdam · 537 ms | San Francisco · 627 ms | Montreal · 422 ms | | Slowest location | San Francisco · 781 ms | Mumbai · 1211 ms | Mumbai · 1183 ms | Mumbai · 1348 ms | | Days when every city slowed together | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | Requests in this window | 420 over 14 daily runs | 417 over 14 daily runs | 326 over 11 daily runs | 419 over 14 daily runs | | Latest controlled run | 7 September 2026 | 20 September 2026 | 13 September 2026 | 20 September 2026 |

How we test

We send the same streaming prompt from six cities to DeepSeek directly and through OpenRouter, then measure time to first visible token.

Same request on both sides: thinking off, temperature 0. The Fireworks and BaseTen routes are left out: one throttled us, the other never returned a visible token.

Full testing methodology →

Good to know

• Network setup is the hop to OpenRouter's edge (11–19 ms from every city); the hop from OpenRouter to the provider's machines is counted as waiting for the model, which is why Mumbai still waits longer than Montreal.
• Direct sends deepseek-v4-flash, which DeepSeek has served with V4.1 Flash since 10 September (V4 Flash is retired), while the OpenRouter routes pin deepseek-v4-flash-0731, so the two sides have not been the same model since that day.
• Each OpenRouter request pins one provider with fallbacks off, and a city's run is discarded if any response came from another provider.
• The prompt is "Say 'ok' and nothing else." (max\_tokens 256, temperature 0, thinking off), sent daily between 03:30 and 06:46 UTC, 5 requests per city after one discarded warm-up.
• We time the first visible token only; tokens per second, long prompts and thinking on are not measured.

How does your API compare?

Test your endpoint from the same 6 cities used here and see your response time next to these numbers.

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Explore each API

• DeepSeek API response time →Daily history, every city and the slower requests.