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What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is the chatbot from the Chinese company of the same name, known for offering top-tier reasoning models (V4 and R1) completely free and unlimited on web and mobile. Its models are open-weight and its API is one of the cheapest on the market, which has made it the budget alternative to ChatGPT and Claude for developers and demanding users.
Pros
- Completely free chat, with no daily limits or paywalled features
- Open-weight models you can run or audit yourself
- Extremely cheap API (~10x less than equivalent competitors)
- Strong performance at reasoning and coding
Cons
- 'Server busy' notices at peak times
- Chinese company: its data policy raises concerns in corporate settings
- No image generation and no app ecosystem like ChatGPT's
What DeepSeek is like in practice
Where it stands out
It offers top-tier reasoning and coding at no cost and with no hard message cap, something no comparable tool does. And it publishes its models with open weights, so you can download and run them on your own infrastructure: the clean route if the cost appeals and privacy matters too.
Where it falls short
It is a Chinese company with servers outside the EU, which complicates GDPR compliance if you handle customer data: the problem is legal, not technical. There is not much around the model either: essentially a chat, no images, no voice, none of the app ecosystem its rivals have. And at peak times it can be slow.
How its pricing works
The web chat is free. Where the difference is dramatic is the API: it costs a fraction of the competition per million tokens, up to an order of magnitude less. If you are building AI into a product with volume and tight margins, that difference can decide whether the service is viable at all.
Is DeepSeek right for you?
Yes, if…
You want high-level reasoning and coding without paying anything: the chat is free and unlimited. And if you integrate by API, it costs about ten times less than its equivalents.
No, if…
You work somewhere with a strict data policy — it is a Chinese company — or you need image generation and an app ecosystem: it does not compete with ChatGPT there.
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepSeek really free?
Yes. The chat on the web and mobile apps is free with no message limits; only the developer API is pay-as-you-go.
Does DeepSeek work in Spanish?
Yes, it understands and replies fluently in Spanish, although its interface is mainly in English and Chinese.
Are its models open source?
It releases its models with open weights (such as V4 and R1), which can be downloaded and run on your own hardware.
Compare DeepSeek head to head
Pricing, features and limits of DeepSeek against its direct rivals.
Where DeepSeek appears
Rankings where we have picked this tool.