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DeepSeek

Low-cost API for DeepSeek's open-weight reasoning and coding models, compatible with the OpenAI and Anthropic API formats.

Visit deepseek.com ↗Pricing & calculatorAlternatives
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

DeepSeek is an AI lab based in Hangzhou, China. Its API, which DeepSeek calls the Open Platform, serves its current models: a fast, low-cost Flash model and a larger Pro model, both with a 1M-token context window, tool calls and JSON output.

There is no DeepSeek-specific SDK to learn. The API speaks the OpenAI Chat Completions format at https://api.deepseek.com, the Anthropic Messages format at /anthropic, and the Responses API, so you use the official OpenAI or Anthropic SDKs, or agent tools such as Claude Code, by swapping the base URL and key. Thinking mode is on by default with an adjustable effort level and can be turned off per request. Usage is deducted from a prepaid balance.

Useful for a small team: context caching on disk is on for everyone, so repeated prompt prefixes are billed at the cache-hit rate without code changes; limits are counted as concurrent requests per account rather than requests per minute, and DeepSeek raises them on request at no cost; a user_id field isolates your own end users for caching and scheduling; and the models are published as open weights on Hugging Face, so the same models can be hosted elsewhere.

The main limit is jurisdiction: DeepSeek's privacy policy says the personal data it collects is processed and stored in the People's Republic of China, and the platform terms are governed by PRC law. Anthropic compatibility is partial too, with fields such as cache_control and mcp_servers ignored and document blocks unsupported.

Where it fits

LLM API · Model providerLow per-token prices on strong reasoning and coding models, with OpenAI- and Anthropic-format endpoints.Trade-off: Served from China, which matters for some customers' data requirements; peak-hour prices are double off-peak.

Who uses it

11 makers' products, each linked to the source that shows it, and 24 open-source projects that declare it in their code.

The maker says so 9Subprocessor list 2Declared in code 24How evidence is collected →
Browser UseOpen-source library and cloud service that lets AI agents control a browser to complete…

“Best open source model currently. Gives Browser Use superpowers!”

LLM APIMaker says so · source ↗
IFTTTEvery thing works better together

“DeepSeek delivers serious reasoning at a fraction of the cost of comparable models. We chose it because powerful AI shouldn't have a premium price tag attached to every use case.”

LLM APIMaker says so · source ↗
WeavableGive every AI agent persistent work context

“DeepSeek gives us frontier-level reasoning at a fraction of the cost, which means we can run AI features at scale without watching the meter. Perfect for the high-volume inference paths where every token counts.”

LLM APIMaker says so · source ↗
MGX (Now Atoms)The World's First AI Dev Team

“DeepSeek Chat serves as our reliable foundation for basic content creation tasks. Its efficient performance and consistent output quality make it perfect for handling straightforward development requests.”

LLM APIMaker says so · source ↗

Open source: a project that declares DeepSeek as a dependency in its public code — verifiable, but not necessarily a live product.

What makers say

7 makers on why they use DeepSeek, in their own words on Product Hunt.

DeepSeek gives us frontier-level reasoning at a fraction of the cost, which means we can run AI features at scale without watching the meter. Perfect for the high-volume inference paths where every token counts.
WeavableSep 2026 ↗
DeepSeek Chat serves as our reliable foundation for basic content creation tasks. Its efficient performance and consistent output quality make it perfect for handling straightforward development requests.
MGX (Now Atoms)Sep 2026 ↗
DeepSeek delivers serious reasoning at a fraction of the cost of comparable models. We chose it because powerful AI shouldn't have a premium price tag attached to every use case.
IFTTTSep 2026 ↗
Deepseek V4 Pro is the best bang for buck workhorse model out there
WebhoundSep 2026 ↗
Super easy to plug in, and the results are consistently solid.
Read & Give by BonoSep 2026 ↗

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises, with how Product Hunt tags its reviews.

Most loved
  • It delivers strong reasoning at a small fraction of frontier model prices. PHPH 2HNHN 2
  • Recent Flash models handle real coding work in agent harnesses close to frontier models. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
  • It has fewer guardrails, so it helps with security and malware analysis other models refuse. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
  • The direct API gets very high cache hit rates, keeping heavy use cheap. HNHN 2
Watch-outs
  • It burns many thinking tokens, so cost per finished task can exceed cheap per-token prices. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
  • It hallucinates, ignores instructions and struggles with end-to-end builds that frontier models finish. HNHN 2HN 3HN 4
On Product Hunt 4.9★ · 53 reviews
deep thinking ability 11supports coding tasks 10handles complex tasks 7fast performance 6open source 6free tier 5excellent for research 4advanced search capabilities 2slow performance 5not as good as ChatGPT 2server busy errors 2times out 2
Read the reviews on Product Hunt ↗

Who switches

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "X to Y" — real code changes moving a project from one tool to another, by developers in general. Open a row to see the pull requests.

Gemini API → DeepSeek24 PRs
Gemini API vs DeepSeek compared →All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
OpenAI API → DeepSeek23 PRs
OpenAI API vs DeepSeek compared →All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
Claude → DeepSeek17 PRs
Claude vs DeepSeek compared →All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
Groq → DeepSeek7 PRs
All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
DeepSeek → OpenAI API16 PRs
DeepSeek vs OpenAI API compared →All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
DeepSeek → Gemini API15 PRs
DeepSeek vs Gemini API compared →All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
DeepSeek → Groq9 PRs
All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
DeepSeek → Claude8 PRs
DeepSeek vs Claude compared →All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

Alternatives to DeepSeek

All alternatives by situation →
ClaudeCoding, long documents and agent-style tool use.251 makers · LLM APICompare with DeepSeek →
OpenAI APIThe broadest model lineup — text, images, speech, embeddings — and the largest ecosystem.734 makers · LLM APICompare with DeepSeek →
Gemini APIVery long context and multimodal input, with a free tier to start.Free tier99 makers · LLM APICompare with DeepSeek →
Mistral AIA European provider whose API covers chat, coding, OCR and speech models.Free tier15 makers · LLM APICompare with DeepSeek →
GroqVery low-latency inference on open models, for real-time features.Free tier39 makers · LLM API

On Product Hunt, people weigh it against: Claude, OpenAI API, Gemini API, Mistral AI, Grok API, Claude Code.

Questions makers ask about DeepSeek

Where is my data processed?

DeepSeek's privacy policy says it collects, processes and stores personal data in the People's Republic of China. The policy also says that for apps built on the Open Platform, the developer is the controller of its end users' data and must disclose its own policy to them. source ↗

Can I use the OpenAI or Anthropic SDK?

Yes. Set the base URL to https://api.deepseek.com for the OpenAI SDK or https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic for the Anthropic SDK, and use a DeepSeek API key. source ↗

What are the rate limits?

Each account has a cap on concurrent requests per model, whichever key is used, and exceeding it returns HTTP 429. You can ask for higher concurrency, which DeepSeek grants at no extra cost based on your needs. source ↗

Do I need to set up prompt caching?

No. Disk-based context caching is enabled for all users by default, and unused cache entries are cleared automatically, usually within a few hours to a few days. source ↗

Can I turn off the reasoning step?

Yes. Thinking mode is on by default at high effort; you can disable it or set the effort with the thinking and reasoning_effort parameters (or their Anthropic and Responses equivalents). source ↗

Who owns the outputs, and can I train on them?

You keep your rights in the inputs and DeepSeek assigns its rights in the outputs to you. The terms explicitly allow using inputs and outputs to train other models, including distillation. source ↗

Can I run the models on my own infrastructure?

The V4 models are released as open weights on Hugging Face, alongside a technical report, so you can serve them yourself or through another host. source ↗

Is DeepSeek free?

No permanent free tier; paid use starts at Pay per token. source ↗

Is DeepSeek open source or self-hostable?

Not open source, and hosted only.

Can AI coding agents work with DeepSeek?

No llms.txt, official MCP server or CLI found yet.

Who uses DeepSeek?

11 makers' products we track, each with a source, and 24 open-source projects declare it in their code. source ↗