What is DeepSeek?

DeepSeek is an AI assistant and model platform from Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence. It offers a free chat app (iOS and Android), a paid pay-per-token API, and DeepSeek Harness, a desktop agent for macOS and Windows that edits local files and runs multi-step tasks.

Who it's for

The app suits individuals who want a free AI chat assistant for learning, writing and everyday tasks. The API and Harness suit developers and teams who are comfortable paying per token, and DeepSeek still calls Harness a developer preview.

Pros & cons

Strengths

The app is listed as free on the App Store with no in-app purchases listed, and DeepSeek's app announcement describes it as free with no ads and no in-app purchases.
The app supports web search, a Deep-Think mode, file upload with text extraction, and chat history synced across platforms; the App Store lists support for English plus 71 other languages.
The API lists two models, deepseek-flash and deepseek-v4-pro, each with a 1M-token context window and up to 384K output tokens, with thinking and non-thinking modes.
API features listed include JSON output, tool calls, a Responses API, an Anthropic-format endpoint, and vision on deepseek-flash only.
API prices are per 1M tokens: deepseek-flash is $0.15 input (cache miss), $0.003 input (cache hit) and $0.60 output at off-peak rates; deepseek-v4-pro is $0.66, $0.022 and $1.98. Peak rates are double.
The Terms say users can switch off "Improve the model for everyone", and that DeepSeek assigns its rights in Outputs to the user, including use for training other models.

Limitations

The API has no subscription tiers: it is prepaid balance billed per token, and peak-hour rates (01:00-04:00 and 06:00-10:00 UTC, Monday to Friday, excluding Chinese public holidays) are double the off-peak rates.
API concurrency is capped per account at 2500 for deepseek-flash and 500 for deepseek-v4-pro; requests over the cap get an HTTP 429 error, and a higher cap needs an expansion request.
Search and Fetch are $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests each; they are free in DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code and Codex until per-request billing starts at 00:00 Beijing time on November 1, 2026.
DeepSeek says Harness is a developer preview with no security audit, that model or plugin errors could modify or delete files, and that the desktop app sends usage data by default with no in-app opt-out (prompts, responses and API keys excluded).
The privacy policy says data is stored on servers in the People's Republic of China, and the Terms are governed by mainland China law, with disputes heard in a court where the company is registered.

Plans and pricing

App (Free): $0. Free chat app on iOS and Android with web search, Deep-Think mode and file upload. Usage limits were not stated on the pages read.
API: deepseek-flash: $0.15 per 1M input tokens (cache miss), $0.60 per 1M output, off-peak. Prepaid, pay per token. Cache-hit input $0.003 per 1M. Peak rates are $0.30, $0.006 and $1.20. 1M context, up to 384K output, vision supported.
API: deepseek-v4-pro: $0.66 per 1M input tokens (cache miss), $1.98 per 1M output, off-peak. Prepaid, pay per token. Cache-hit input $0.022 per 1M. Peak rates are $1.32, $0.044 and $3.96. 1M context, up to 384K output, no vision.
Search & Fetch (API): $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests. Each of Search and Fetch is billed separately. Free in DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code and Codex until November 1, 2026 (Beijing time).
DeepSeek Harness (desktop): Free to download, then per-token usage. macOS (Apple silicon) and Windows (x64). Sign in with a DeepSeek account or paste an API key. Usage is billed at API token rates.

Prices were read from DeepSeek's API docs pricing page, in USD. The app price comes from the App Store listing and DeepSeek's app announcement; web chat limits and any paid app features could not be read. An older platform.deepseek.com pricing page still shows $0.14 input and $0.28 output for deepseek-chat; this appears out of date, so confirm on the live pricing page.

Details checked October 2026 against the vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change, so confirm before you buy. Official pricing page ↗

Sources

This profile was compiled from these public pages. We have not run hands-on tests.

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DeepSeek — at a glance

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