Description
DeepSeek is a Chinese AI company producing open-source models that rival GPT-4 at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek-V3.2 serves as the general-purpose model with Mixture-of-Experts architecture (671B parameters, ~37B active), while R1 specializes in advanced reasoning and coding. The web chat is completely free. API pricing is dramatically lower than competitors: V3 at $0.14-$0.28 per MTok input, R1 at $0.55-$2.19/MTok output. The Sparse Attention technology achieves 50-75% lower inference costs for long contexts. V3.2 introduced Thinking-in-Tool-Use for autonomous agents with self-correction. All models support 128K context windows and are open-weight for self-hosting.
Features
- ●Open Source: Open-weight models for free self-hosting
- ●MoE Architecture: 671B params with only 37B active for efficiency
- ●R1 Reasoning: Specialized reasoning model rivaling o1
- ●Ultra-Low Pricing: 10-30x cheaper than GPT-4 equivalents
- ●Sparse Attention: 50-75% cost reduction for long contexts
Pricing
Web Chat
$0
- Completely free
- V3.2 & R1 access
- 128K context
- No rate limits
API V3
$0.14-$0.28
/ per MTok (in/out)
- General purpose
- MoE architecture
- Agent capabilities
API R1
$0.55/$2.19
/ per MTok (in/out)
- Advanced reasoning
- Coding specialist
- Chain-of-thought
Enterprise
Custom
- Private deployment
- Custom pricing
- SLA
- Dedicated support
Pros & Cons
Pros
✓ Web chat is completely free
✓ API pricing 10-30x cheaper than competitors
✓ Open-weight models for self-hosting
✓ R1 reasoning rivals GPT o1
Cons
✗ Based in China raises data sovereignty concerns
✗ Documentation mostly in Chinese
✗ No image or video generation
✗ Model availability can fluctuate
Tags:open-source, LLM, reasoning, coding, ultra-low-cost, Chinese AI