Despite being in development for a few years, Deepseek seems to have arrived almost overnight after the launch of its R1 model on January 20th took the AI world by storm, mainly because it offers performance that rivals Chatgpt. O1 without charging it to use it. Their app is currently number one on the iPhone App Store as a result of its instant popularity.
Deepseek is a Chinese-owned AI startup and has developed its latest LLMS (called Deepseek-V3 and Deepseek-R1) to be on par with rivals ChatGPT-4O and ChatGPT-O1, while costing a fraction of the price per your API connections. And because of the way it works, Deepseek uses much less computing power to process queries.
Some security experts have expressed concerns about data privacy when using Deepseek since it is a Chinese company. Obviously, given the recent legal controversy surrounding Tiktok, there are concerns that any data it captures could fall into the hands of the Chinese state.
Deepseek has already endured some “malicious attacks,” resulting in service outages that have forced it to restrict who can sign up. Stay up to date on all the latest news with our disruption live blog.
What is Deepseek?
Deepseek is the name of the Chinese startup that created Deepseek-V3 and Deepseek-R1 LLMS, which was founded in May 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, an influential figure in the hedge fund and AI industries.
The first Deepseek product was Deepseek Coder, launched in November 2023. Deepseek-V2 followed in May 2024 with an aggressively cheaper pricing plan that caused disruption in the Chinese AI market, forcing rivals to reduce their prices. .
The company’s current LLM models are Deepseek-V3 and Deepseek-R1. Both have impressive benchmarks compared to their rivals, but use fewer resources due to the way LLMs have been created. Deepseek-v3 is a general-purpose model, while Deepseek-R1 focuses on reasoning tasks.
Deepseek has been able to develop LLMs rapidly by using an innovative training process that relies on trial and error for self-advancement. So in essence, Deepseek’s LLM models learn in a way similar to human learning, by receiving feedback based on their actions. They also use a MOE (mix of experts) architecture, so they activate only a small fraction of their parameters at any given time, significantly reducing computational cost and making them more efficient.
TL; DR – What is Deepseek?
Deepseek offers AI of comparable quality to ChatGPT, but it is completely free in chatbot form. It lacks some of the bells and whistles of ChatGPT, particularly AI video and image creation, but we expect it to improve over time.
To use Deepseek as a chatbot, you can simply head to Deepseek.com and click Start Now. You’ll need to create an account to use it, but you can sign in with your Google account if you want.
Alternatively, you can download the Deepseek app for iOS or Android, and use the chatbot on your smartphone.
Deepseek Price: How Much Is It and Can You Get a Subscription?
You don’t need to subscribe to Deepseek because, at least in its chatbot form, it’s free to use. The default Deepseek chatbot uses the Deepseek-V3 model, but you can switch to its R1 model at any time, simply by clicking or tapping the ‘DeepThink (R1)’ button below the bar immediately.
If you want to use Deepseek more professionally and use APIs to connect to Deepseek for tasks like coding in the background, then there is a charge. Currently, it is only $0.55 per mission entry tokens and $2.19 per million exit tokens. This compares very favorably to the OpenAI API, which costs $15 and $60.
Deepseek and chatgpt: What are the main differences?
While its LLM may be super-powered, Deepseek appears to be quite basic compared to its rivals when it comes to features. In terms of chatting with the chatbot, it’s exactly the same as using chatgpt: just type something in the quickbar, like “tell me about the Stoics” and you’ll get a response, which you can then expand with follow-up prompts, like “explain that to me as if was a 6-year-old boy. The responses you will get from the two chatbots are very similar.
What you’ll notice most is that Deepseek is limited by not containing all the extras you get with CHATGPT. For example, you’ll notice that you can’t generate AI images or videos using Deepseek and you don’t get any of the tools that ChatGPT offers, such as the canvas or the ability to interact with custom GPTs like “Insta Guru” and “Designergpt.”
If you are more of a chatgpt subscriber, then there are a variety of LLMs that you can choose from when using chatgpt. In Deepseek, you only have two: Deepseek-V3 is the default and if you want to use its advanced reasoning model, you need to tap or click the ‘DeepThink (R1)’ button before entering your message.
There are also fewer options in the settings to customize in Deepseek, so it’s not as easy to fine-tune its responses. In short, Deepseek is a lot like Chatgpt without all the bells and whistles. We tested both Deepseek and Chatgpt using the same prompts to see which ones we preferred.
Deepseek and chatgpt: key differences
Deepseek: Free to use, much cheaper APIs, but only basic chatbot functionality.
Chatgpt: Requires a Plus or Pro subscription for advanced features.
One of the best features of ChatGPT is its ChatGPT search feature, which was recently made available to everyone at the free-to-use tier. This allows you to search the web using your conversational approach. Deepseek also features a search function that works in exactly the same way as ChatGPT.
Finally, you can upload images to Deepseek, but only to extract text from them. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is multimodal, so you can upload an image and answer any questions about it you may have.
Search and chatgpt search Deepseek: What are the main differences?
AI Search is one of the best uses of an AI chatbot we’ve seen so far. It allows you to search the web using the same type of conversation prompts that a chatbot typically engages with.
Like ChatGPT, Deepseek has a search function built right into its chatbot. Simply tap the search button (or click if you’re using the web version) and then any message you type becomes a web search. It couldn’t be easier to use than that, really.
Once you’ve done your search, say for pizza restaurants in your city, you can ask follow-up questions, such as “of these, if you had to choose one restaurant, which one would it be?”
Deepseek will answer your question by recommending a single restaurant and give your reasons. It’s this ability to follow up the initial search with more questions, as if it were a real conversation, that makes AI search tools particularly useful.
Both ChatGPT and Deepseek allow you to click to see the source of a particular recommendation, however ChatGPT does a better job of organizing all of your sources so they are easier to reference, and when you click on one it opens the sidebar of appointments for easy access. In contrast, Deepseek is a bit more basic in the way it delivers search results.
How to use Deepseek-R1 for deeper reasoning
Deepseek-R1 is an advanced reasoning model, which is on par with the CHATGPT-O1 model. These models are better at mathematical questions and questions that require deeper thinking, so they generally take longer to answer, however, they will present your reasoning in a more accessible way.
To use R1 on the Deepseek chatbot, simply press (or tap if you’re on mobile) the ‘DeepThink (R1)’ button before entering your message. The button is in the bar immediately, next to the search button and is highlighted when selected.
When you ask your question, you will notice that it will be slower to respond than normal, you will also notice that Deepseek appears to be having a conversation with itself before it delivers its answer. That’s so you can see the reasoning process you went through to deliver it. It’s quite fascinating!
How to switch to Deepseek from chatgpt
One thing to keep in mind before leaving chatgpt to Deepseek is that you won’t have the ability to upload images for analysis, generate images, or use some of the canvas-like breaking tools that chatgpt is known for.
If all you want to do is ask an AI chatbot questions, generate code, or extract text from images, then you’ll find that Deepseek currently seems to meet all your needs without burdening you with anything.
We also found that we received the occasional “high demand” message from Deepseek which resulted in our query failing. However, Deepseek is currently completely free to use as a chatbot on mobile and the web, and that’s a big advantage for it to have.
