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DeepSeek Review: The Free Chinese AI That Out-Thinks Its Price Tag

Tools  Updated 2026-11-04 · 2 min read · #chatbot #reasoning #api #free

What it is

DeepSeek (from the Chinese quant fund / AI lab of the same name) is a chatbot + API with two modes: a fast everyday model and a “thinking” model that shows its work. Its reputation: strong reasoning and code, extremely cheap API pricing, and open-weight models you can read the papers of.

Free tier

• Chat (web + app): core features free. No paywall for normal use.
• API: among the cheapest per-million-token rates on the market — exact numbers change often, so check the official pricing page rather than trust any review, including this one.

Getting started (3 steps)

1. Open chat.deepseek.com, sign in with a phone number or email.
2. Pick a mode: reasoning mode for anything that needs steps (math, code, “explain why”), fast mode for everyday questions.
3. Ask normally — but give it a role and a sample (“act as a teacher, here’s my level, don’t exceed it”) and it performs noticeably better.

Best use

Honest weaknesses

• Confident tone, occasional confident nonsense — verify years, numbers, quotes.
• Interface and ecosystem are Chinese-first: some features sign-in better with a CN phone number; English output is good but docs/examples skew Chinese.
• Creative writing is not its best show.

FAQ

Is my data going to China?

Requests go to DeepSeek’s servers; if that matters for your use case, read their policy before pasting anything sensitive — for any AI, honestly.

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT for coding?

For “explain and fix this code”, it’s far above its price. For messy multi-file agent workflows, the paid western tools still have more tooling around them.

Is the API really that cheap?

Yes — the pricing is the reason most reviews of it start with pricing. Numbers change, so the official page is the only source worth trusting.