DeepSeek

Name: DeepSeek
Author: AgentRadar

Verified

Open-weight frontier models with 1M context, multimodal, and radical low cost

AI Assistants Freemium

7.5 /10

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Released

2023-07

Country

China

API

Available

Self-Host

Yes

Funding

Private

Last Updated

2026-06

About DeepSeek

DeepSeek is an AI lab and assistant platform known for its open-weight model family. After the DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 reasoning models proved that frontier-grade performance could be delivered at a fraction of closed-model cost, the lab released DeepSeek-V4 Preview on 2026-04-24 — open-sourced with a 1M-token context window, multimodal image and video generation, and significantly stronger coding performance. Early benchmarks place V4 in the same tier as GPT-5.5 and Claude Opus 4.7 while costing roughly 10× less via API. The DeepSeek chat assistant (chat.deepseek.com) gives free access to these models with a "DeepThink" reasoning mode. Because the weights are open, DeepSeek models are widely self-hosted and have become a default choice for cost-conscious developers.

Verdict

The open-weights value champion. With V4's 1M context, multimodal, and frontier-level coding at roughly a tenth of rival API costs, DeepSeek is the default pick for cost-sensitive and self-hosted setups — though its product ecosystem still trails the closed-model giants.

Features

DeepThink reasoning mode

Web search

File analysis

1M token context window (V4)

Multimodal (image/video, V4)

Open-weight, self-hostable models

Code generation

Low-cost API

Detailed Ratings

Ease of Use

7.0

Value for Money

8.5

Features

7.2

Support

6.5

Performance

7.5

Overall Rating

7.5 /10

Benchmark Scores

Benchmark	Score	Date
DeepSeek-V4 vs frontier models	Rivals GPT-5.5 / Claude Opus 4.7 on coding & reasoning	2026-04
API cost	~10× lower than comparable frontier models	2026-04

Benchmark scores from publicly available sources. Actual performance may vary in real-world usage.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Frontier-level reasoning for free
Extremely cheap API
V4 adds 1M context & multimodal
Strong coding & math

Cons

Smaller product ecosystem
Capacity constraints during peak demand
Multimodal is nascent (V4 Preview stage)

Use Cases

Complex reasoningCoding & mathCost-sensitive AI appsSelf-hosted deploymentsLong-document analysis (1M context)Research

Who Is It For?

Developers and cost-conscious users who want frontier-level reasoning, 1M-token context, and coding performance for free or at extremely low API cost

#chatbot#general-assistant#deepseek#open-weight#reasoning#low-cost#multimodal#long-context

Pricing Plans

Free

DeepSeek chat access
DeepThink reasoning mode
Web search
File uploads

API — Cache Hit

$0.07 /per 1M input tok

Cached input pricing
Ultra-low cost
Best for repeated prompts

API — Standard

$0.27 /per 1M input tok

Standard pricing
Non-cached input
Reasoning model access

API — V4 (1M context)

~10× lower /than frontier rivals

1M-token context window
Multimodal (image/video)
Preview-stage access

Frequently Asked Questions

Is DeepSeek really free?

The DeepSeek chat assistant is free to use, and the underlying model weights are openly available. The API is paid but dramatically cheaper than most frontier-model APIs.

Are DeepSeek models open source?

DeepSeek releases model weights openly (DeepSeek-V3, V4, and R1) under a permissive license, allowing self-hosting. This makes them popular for cost-sensitive and private deployments.

What is DeepSeek-V4?