DeepSeek: Open LLM for Code, Text, and Reasoning at $0.26/1M Tokens

Try for free

DeepSeek

• Web version is free, API - $0.26/1M input tokens
• 128,000 token context - analysis of large documents
• Deep reasoning mode with a thought chain
• Code generation in 300+ programming languages
• Open-source under MIT license

236 billion

Model parameters

93.1%

AIME 2025 accuracy

92%

HumanEval (code)

DeepSeek is an open language model from the Chinese company DeepSeek AI, launched in December 2024. The model competes with GPT-4 and Claude in text and code quality but is 10-20 times cheaper due to Sparse Attention technology. Version V3.2 includes deep reasoning mode that shows step-by-step problem-solving logic-unlike closed models like OpenAI o1.

The main advantage is the open source code under the MIT license. Model weights are available on Hugging Face, allowing DeepSeek to be deployed locally without relying on external APIs. This is critical for companies with data privacy requirements.

Key Features of DeepSeek

The DeepSeek V3.2 model includes 236 billion parameters and processes context up to 128,000 tokens-about 300 pages of text per request. DeepSeek Sparse Attention technology reduces computation costs by more than 50% compared to traditional transformers.

• 128,000-token context window-processes entire books, technical documents, and large codebases in one request without coherence loss over the entire context length.
• Deep reasoning mode-the model shows step-by-step logic through the reasoning_content field, useful for math, programming, and complex analysis.
• Code generation in 300+ languages-supports Python, JavaScript, C++, Java, Go, Rust with 92% accuracy on HumanEval benchmark; the model identifies errors and translates between languages.
• DeepSeek Sparse Attention technology-selective attention mechanism focuses only on relevant tokens, speeding up processing of long contexts 2-3 times.
• Compatibility with OpenAI API-DeepSeek can be used to replace ChatGPT in existing applications by changing the base_url to https://api.deepseek.com.
• Function calling and tool integration-integration with external APIs, databases, and services to create autonomous AI agents.
• Context caching-tokens from the cache cost $0.026 per million (10 times cheaper), which is critical for applications with long system prompts.

Advantages and Disadvantages

DeepSeek stands out with extremely low API costs and open-source code. The reasoning mode publishes a full chain of thoughts-unlike closed models from OpenAI. However, being based in China poses regulatory risks for some companies.

Pros:

• ✅ API 10-20 times cheaper than GPT-4 and Claude-$0.26 versus $5 per million tokens
• ✅ Open-source under MIT license-can be deployed locally and modified
• ✅ Reasoning mode with public thought chain through the reasoning_content field
• ✅ 128K token context-handles large documents in one request
• ✅ Excellent code performance-92% on HumanEval and 300+ programming languages
• ✅ Full compatibility with OpenAI ecosystem-all SDKs and libraries work
• ✅ Outstanding math results-93.1% on AIME 2025 and 92-95% on HMMT

Cons:

• ❌ Reasoning mode increases token consumption-tens of thousands of tokens in internal thoughts
• ❌ Being based in China poses regulatory risks-concerns over GDPR and data security
• ❌ Knowledge is up-to-date until the end of 2024-need search integration for fresh information
• ❌ No multimodality-only text, no images, audio, or video
• ❌ Documentation mainly in English and Chinese-limited Russian materials

Pricing and Plans

DeepSeek offers free access through the web interface chat.deepseek.com and mobile apps with no request limits. The API is available on a pay-as-you-go basis-some of the lowest prices in the LLM market.

• Web Version: completely free, no request limits
• API (cached tokens): $0.026 per million tokens-up to 90% savings on recurring requests
• API (uncached input tokens): $0.26 per million tokens-standard rate for prompts
• API (output tokens): $0.38 per million tokens-for generated text
• Free API credits: available upon registration for feature testing

DeepSeek is 10-20 times cheaper than GPT-4 ($5/1M tokens) and Claude Sonnet ($3/1M) with comparable quality. Important: in reasoning mode (deepseek-reasoner), token consumption is significantly higher due to long chains of thoughts, but the quality of solving complex tasks is substantially better.

Who is DeepSeek For

• Programmers and Developers-code generation, refactoring, bug finding, language translation, and documentation creation; the model understands the context of large codebases thanks to the 128K token window.
• Startups with Limited Budgets-GPT-4-level AI capabilities at 1/10th the cost; chatbots and automation systems can be created without large investments.
• Researchers and Data Scientists-open weights allow experimentation with architecture, further training on specialized data, and publishing results without restrictions.
• Enterprise Companies with Privacy Requirements-local deployment of open weights allows processing sensitive data within corporate infrastructure without cloud transmission.

How to Start with DeepSeek

1. Web Version: visit chat.deepseek.com and start a dialogue without registration-completely free.
2. API: register at deepseek.com, get an API key, and use the endpoint https://api.deepseek.com-compatible with OpenAI SDK.
3. Local Deployment: download model weights from Hugging Face (versions from 1.5 to 70 billion parameters are available) and run through vLLM or TensorRT.
4. Mobile Apps: install DeepSeek from the App Store or Google Play for access from iOS and Android.

Comparison with Competitors

DeepSeek competes with GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini in quality, but is radically cheaper and fully open. ChatGPT-4o costs $5 per million input tokens (19 times more expensive) and offers multimodality-text, images, audio, video. DeepSeek works only with text but shows comparable quality with open source code.

Claude 4.1 Sonnet has a context window of 200K tokens (more than DeepSeek's 128K) and leads on the SWE-bench benchmark for programming-74.5%. The cost of $3 per million input tokens is 11 times higher than DeepSeek. Claude does not provide open weights for local deployment.

Google Gemini 2.5 Flash supports context up to 1 million tokens and works with images. The cost of $0.30 per million tokens is comparable to DeepSeek, but Gemini lacks deep reasoning mode and open weights. xAI Grok 4 offers context up to 2M tokens and shows 88.4% on GPQA Diamond, surpassing DeepSeek in some scientific tasks at a similar price of $0.20 per million.

Frequently Asked Questions