DeepSeek develops language models and offers a consumer AI assistant, a developer API, and open-weight releases for supported deployment workflows.

Is DeepSeek free to use?

Its official consumer app is free. API usage is paid separately, and self-hosting requires computing resources. Free access is not a guarantee of uninterrupted capacity or unlimited uploads.

What is DeepSeek V4.1-Flash?

Released September 10, 2026, V4.1-Flash is a newer DeepSeek model with native visual understanding. Its canonical API identifier is deepseek-flash.

Can DeepSeek understand images?

V4.1-Flash supports visual understanding. Confirm that your chosen app or endpoint accepts images; understanding an image does not imply image-generation support.

What is the difference between thinking and non-thinking modes?

Non-thinking mode suits quick transformations and straightforward answers. Thinking mode can help with multi-step problems, but its longer reasoning does not guarantee correctness.

How does DeepSeek API pricing work?

API charges depend on model, input and output tokens, cache status, and peak or off-peak timing. Use the current official pricing table rather than older promotional rates.

Can I run DeepSeek locally?

Supported open-weight checkpoints can be self-hosted. Hardware needs vary substantially, and the full V4.1-Flash model is not equivalent to a small laptop-friendly distilled model.

What should I know about DeepSeek privacy?

Review the policy for your service and region. The UK-published DSeek policy describes training-related data use and processing in China, with privacy requests directed to privacy@deepseek.com subject to applicable conditions.

AI / AI Chat & Assistants / DeepSeek

DeepSeek

Free AI assistant for reasoning, coding, search and file understanding.

General AI AssistantCodingReasoningWeb Research

General AI AssistantCompare this model Visit website

Starting Price

Free $0/month · API pay-as-you-go (no paid chat subscription publicly listed)

Context Window

Up to 1M tokens announced for DeepSeek V4 official services; effective app limits may vary; API V4 Pro/Flash 1M

Web Access

Built-in web search for current information in official assistant

Best For

Coding / STEM reasoning / Writing / Web research / Budget-conscious users

About DeepSeek

DeepSeek offers free web/mobile chat, V4 Pro Expert Mode, web search and file extraction; developer API is billed separately.

Specifications

Pricing

3 specifications

Starting Price	Free $0/month · API pay-as-you-go (no paid chat subscription publicly listed)
Free Plan	Official DeepSeek web and mobile assistant is free; no in-app purchases advertised
Usage Limits	Chat rate limits and fair-use thresholds not publicly specified; API metered per million tokens

Overview

3 specifications

Primary Use Case	Free reasoning and coding assistant with web search and file understanding
Best For	Coding / STEM reasoning / Writing / Web research / Budget-conscious users
Platforms	Web / iOS / Android / Windows desktop / macOS desktop (Apple silicon)

AI & Models

5 specifications

AI Models	DeepSeek V4 Pro (Expert Mode); V4.1 Flash via API; app model availability may differ
Model Selection	DeepSeek V4 Pro Expert Mode on app/web; API allows V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash selection
Context Window	Up to 1M tokens announced for DeepSeek V4 official services; effective app limits may vary; API V4 Pro/Flash 1M
Knowledge Cutoff	Not disclosed as one cutoff for the current app; differs by model and live web search
Real-time Web Access	Built-in web search for current information in official assistant

General Chat	Free multi-turn chat for questions, writing, explanations and planning
Advanced Reasoning	Deep-Think/Expert reasoning; API supports reasoning effort low, high and max on V4 models
Web Search	Web search in DeepSeek app with retrieved information; citation presentation varies
Deep Research	Dedicated Deep Research mode and quotas not officially disclosed; web-assisted multi-step reasoning available
Citations / Sources	Web-search responses may include links to retrieved sources; not guaranteed on all answers
Conversation Memory	Cross-device synchronized chat history; persistent cross-chat preference memory not officially disclosed
Custom Instructions	Persistent account-wide custom instructions not officially documented

Image Understanding	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash API supports native visual understanding; app support varies by active model
Image Generation	Native image generation in official DeepSeek chat not confirmed
File Analysis	File upload and text extraction in official app; supported formats and per-file caps not consistently disclosed
Voice Input	Native voice input not clearly documented in current official app feature list
Voice Conversations	Real-time two-way voice mode not officially confirmed
Video Understanding	Video understanding in the current consumer app not officially documented

Coding Assistance	Code generation, debugging and agentic coding; V4 Pro optimized for agent tasks
Data Analysis	Text and uploaded-file reasoning; dedicated spreadsheet execution environment not confirmed
Document Creation	Can draft documents and structured content; native DOCX/XLSX/PPTX export in app not confirmed
Canvas / Workspace	DeepSeek Harness desktop for long-running tasks and editing local files; dedicated chat Canvas not documented
Projects / Workspaces	Synced chat history; project folders or shared team workspaces not documented for free app

Custom Assistants	Custom assistant marketplace or no-code assistant builder not officially documented
Extensions / Apps	DeepSeek Harness desktop and API integrations; in-chat app marketplace not documented
Integrations	DeepSeek API supports OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions/Responses and Anthropic-compatible endpoints

API Access	DeepSeek API separately billed per token; V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash support 1M context; peak/off-peak pricing
Team Plan	Dedicated consumer-app team subscription not publicly listed; API supports developer integration
Enterprise Plan	Enterprise deployment possible via API and open-weight models; managed enterprise chat plan not publicly listed
Enterprise Security	App-level SSO, SCIM and enterprise admin controls not publicly documented; evaluate API/data policies separately

DeepSeek

About DeepSeek

Specifications

Pricing

Overview

AI & Models

Chat & Reasoning

Multimodal

Productivity

Customization

Developer & Business

Languages

Compare DeepSeek

Compare before you choose

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Reviews & Guides

DeepSeek AI: A Professional Guide to Chat, Models, and Pricing (2026)

Multilingual Support	Multilingual text generation and comprehension; quality varies by language
Supported Languages	English, Chinese and additional languages supported by models; exhaustive official app language list not disclosed