DeepSeek API
DeepSeek API
DeepSeek API provides China's top open-source LLMs — DeepSeek-V3, DeepSeek-Coder, etc.; known for extreme cost-effectiveness + open-source strategy + inference performance.
Insane cost-effectiveness (DeepSeek-V3 input from ¥0.5/M tokens, ~1/30 of OpenAI)
Brand recognition less than OpenAI
Sign up at platform.deepseek.com for API key. OpenAI-compatible: POST https://api.deepseek.com/v1/chat/completions with model: "deepseek-chat" + messages.
Uptime · 30-day window
About this API
DeepSeek is an AI company founded 2023 in Hangzhou, parent company is High-Flyer Capital (a quantitative hedge fund with 8000 GPUs). Differentiator is "extreme cost-effectiveness" — via MoE (Mixture of Experts) architecture and engineering optimization, inference cost is industry-lowest (DeepSeek-V3 input ¥0.5/M tokens is ~1/30 of OpenAI). Plus open-source strategy — all major models (V2, V3, Coder series) fully open-sourced; DeepSeek-V3 is 671B MoE model rivaling GPT-4o, fully open (extremely high HuggingFace downloads). Late 2024 release of DeepSeek-R1 (reasoning model vs. o1) caused AI community sensation — performance near o1 at 1/30 price; massive global developer migration. API design fully OpenAI-compatible (just change base_url). Currently among the fastest-growing in commercialization and influence among China LLMs.
What you can build
- 1Code generation (DeepSeek-Coder SOTA on coding benchmarks)
- 2Low-cost Chinese LLM apps
- 3AI algorithm research (improve on open-source versions)
- 4Replace OpenAI for cost reduction
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Insane cost-effectiveness (DeepSeek-V3 input from ¥0.5/M tokens, ~1/30 of OpenAI)
- Fully open-source (even 671B MoE architecture)
- OpenAI-compatible API, zero switching cost
- Strong in both Chinese and coding
Limitations
- Brand recognition less than OpenAI
- Some complex reasoning tasks slightly weaker than o1
- English writing style less natural than Claude/GPT-4
Official quickstart
Read the official quickstart at api-docs.deepseek.com.
Getting started
Sign up at platform.deepseek.com for API key. OpenAI-compatible: POST https://api.deepseek.com/v1/chat/completions with model: "deepseek-chat" + messages.
FAQ
Is DeepSeek-V3 really 30x cheaper than GPT-4o?+
Yes. MoE architecture + inference optimization makes per-call cost extremely low. Quality near but slightly weaker than GPT-4o; cost-effectiveness unbeatable.
Is DeepSeek-R1 stronger than o1?+
Some benchmarks approach o1, some exceed. Fully open + 1/30 price; one of biggest LLM news of 2024.
Technical details
- Auth type
- api_key
- Pricing
- paid
- Rate limit
- 60 RPM default; pay-tier scales higher.
- Free tier quota
- No persistent free tier as of 2026; pay-per-token billing only. Promotional credit campaigns appear intermittently.
- Protocols
- REST
- SDKs
- python, javascript, go
- Response time
- 564 ms
- Last health check
- 6/25/2026, 6:22:23 AM