AI assistants
DeepSeek - the practical guide.
DeepSeek is the consumer chat product from DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab whose open-weight DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 reasoning models have shaken up the market by matching frontier performance at a fraction of the cost. The chat app is free to use with generous limits, and the API is dramatically cheaper than Western frontier models.
What DeepSeek does
DeepSeek is the consumer chat product from DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab whose open-weight DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 reasoning models have shaken up the market by matching frontier performance at a fraction of the cost. The chat app is free to use with generous limits, and the API is dramatically cheaper than Western frontier models.
Who it's for
Cost-conscious developers, researchers and teams that want strong reasoning and coding without paying frontier prices, plus open-source enthusiasts running the weights locally. Less of a fit for organisations with restrictions on Chinese-hosted services or strict data residency outside China.
Pricing, in rough terms
Consumer chat is free. API pricing is significantly cheaper than OpenAI or Anthropic - often a fraction of a cent per 1k tokens. Open weights are free to self-host on your own infrastructure (with substantial GPU requirements for the largest models).
When DeepSeek is the right fit
Right when you need strong reasoning or coding at very low cost, or when you want to self-host an open-weight frontier model. Wrong fit for enterprises with policies against Chinese-hosted AI, or for use cases needing rich tool ecosystems and integrations on par with OpenAI.
Watch-outs
Hosted DeepSeek runs on Chinese infrastructure - review your data and compliance posture before sending sensitive information. Outputs can reflect content policies aligned with Chinese regulation on sensitive topics. Tooling, SDKs and integration partners are sparser than OpenAI/Anthropic; expect more DIY work.