DeepSeek is a Chinese AI lab offering free chat apps and low-cost API access to open-weight models DeepSeek-V3 and R1, rivaling top Western LLMs.
Category
AI Chatbots
Pricing
Freemium (free chat app; pay-per-token API), from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2023
Headquarters
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Free PlanWeb AppiOSAndroidAPIOpen SourceAI
Overview
DeepSeek is a Chinese AI lab, founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng and funded by the hedge fund High-Flyer, that develops open-weight large language models including DeepSeek-V3 and the reasoning-focused DeepSeek-R1.
DeepSeek rose to global attention in January 2025 when R1 matched leading Western reasoning models like OpenAI's o1 on math, coding, and logic benchmarks at a fraction of the reported training and serving cost.
Key Features
Models are released with open weights, letting developers self-host and fine-tune them, while a free consumer chat app (web, iOS, Android) offers a Deep Think reasoning mode, web search, and file upload.
The API is priced per token, with DeepSeek-V3 around $0.27/$0.40 per million input/output tokens and R1 around $0.80 per million tokens, plus a caching discount that bills repeated-prompt hits at roughly 10% of the standard input rate.
Pricing
The DeepSeek chat app is entirely free to use, while developers pay per token through the API on a pay-as-you-go basis with no subscription commitment.
DeepSeek's API pricing is consistently cited as significantly below comparable OpenAI and Anthropic models, which is central to its positioning as a low-cost, open-weight alternative to closed frontier labs.
Key Features
DeepSeek-V3 — General-purpose LLM with a large (~164K token) context window.
DeepSeek-R1 — Chain-of-thought reasoning model for math, code, and logic tasks.
Free Chat App — Web, iOS, and Android app with a Deep Think reasoning mode.
Low-Cost API — Pay-per-token pricing with a 10% cache-hit discount on repeated prompts.
Open-Weight Releases — Models are downloadable and self-hostable rather than fully closed.
Web Search Integration — Built-in web search inside the chat interface.
File Upload & History Sync — Upload documents and sync multi-turn chat history across devices.
Multilingual Support — Strong performance across 50+ languages, especially English and Mandarin.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Extremely competitive API pricing versus Western frontier labs
Open-weight models allow self-hosting and fine-tuning
Free consumer chat app with a dedicated reasoning mode
Strong benchmark performance on coding and math relative to cost
Cons
Data handling and China-based infrastructure raise governance/privacy concerns for some enterprises and governments
Some governments and organizations restrict or ban the official app on official devices
Less mature ecosystem of official enterprise support compared to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google
Unofficial third-party 'DeepSeek' apps in app stores can mislead users into paying for features the real app offers free
Pricing
Chat App Free N/A
API - DeepSeek-V3 $0.27 per 1M input tokens / $0.40 per 1M output tokens Pay-as-you-go
API - DeepSeek-R1 $0.80 per 1M input/output tokens Pay-as-you-go
Frequently Asked Questions
Is DeepSeek free?
The chat app is free; the API is billed per token on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Who owns DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is owned and funded by the hedge fund High-Flyer and was founded by Liang Wenfeng.
Are DeepSeek models open source?
DeepSeek releases its models as open weights that can be downloaded and self-hosted.
What is DeepSeek-R1 used for?
Chain-of-thought reasoning tasks such as math problems, code debugging, and multi-step planning.
Is DeepSeek safe to use?
Consumer data is routed through China-based infrastructure, which has led some governments to restrict the official app; self-hosted open-weight deployments avoid that concern.
How does DeepSeek pricing compare to OpenAI?
DeepSeek's per-token API pricing is significantly cheaper than comparable OpenAI and Anthropic models.