DeepSeek
Open-weight research lab known for DeepSeek V4, V3, and R1 reasoning models.
DeepSeek releases competitive open-weight models—including DeepSeek V4.1-Flash (live Flash, native multimodal), V4-Pro-0813 (still on deepseek-v4-pro after 2026-09-14), DeepSeek V3, and the reasoning-focused DeepSeek R1—plus APIs, chat, and DeepSeek Harness (MIT agent runtime, developer preview). It forced the industry to revisit cost/performance assumptions for frontier-class open models, especially for reasoning and coding workloads.
Why DeepSeek matters
DeepSeek is the open-weight shock of the mid-2020s: R1-level reasoning and V4 agentic coding at a fraction of closed-API prices. If you are evaluating self-host, distillation, or whether to stay on GPT/Claude, DeepSeek is the comparison that often changes the spreadsheet.
Last reviewed: 20 October 2026
Best fit for
When architects typically choose DeepSeek.
- Open-weight reasoning models
- Cost-sensitive frontier alternatives
- Self-hosted coding / agents
- Distillation and research stacks
- API-compatible OpenAI-style clients
Strengths
DataAIHub qualitative scores from 1 to 5, for architects. Not official benchmark results or a public ranking.
- Reasoning (R1)★★★★★
- Open weights★★★★★
- Price / performance★★★★★
- Coding★★★★★
- Enterprise packaging★★☆☆☆
Quick facts
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- Hangzhou, China
- Ownership
- Private
- Open source
- Yes
- Enterprise
- Yes
- Flagship model
- DeepSeek V4
On DataAIHub
- 3Models
- 3Products
- 3Tools
- 2GitHub
- 2Research
- 9Guides
- 13Benchmarks
Company profile
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- Hangzhou, China
- Founders
- Liang Wenfeng
- CEO
- Liang Wenfeng
- Funding
- Private
- Ownership
- Private
- Country
- China
- Primary focus
- Open-weight foundation models, Reasoning models, Efficient MoE training, Developer APIs
- Target users
- Developers, Researchers, Cost-sensitive enterprises
- Revenue model
- API usage, Open-weight ecosystem adoption
- Deployment
- Hosted API and chat plus open-weight self-hosting via vLLM/Ollama
- Licensing
- Open-weight model releases with separate API commercial terms
- Open source
- Yes
- Cloud provider
- No
- Website
- https://www.deepseek.com
- Confidence
- High
- Source coverage
- 19
Ecosystem
Competes with
- OpenAI
R1-level reasoning and coding force re-evaluation of closed API pricing.
- Anthropic
Competes for reasoning-heavy workloads that previously defaulted to Claude.
- Mistral AI
Open-weight peers for self-host and cost-sensitive production LLMs.
- Sarvam AI
India-trained open reasoning MoEs overlap DeepSeek on cost-sensitive self-host and API use.
Works with
- vLLM
Default high-throughput serving path for DeepSeek open weights.
- Ollama
Fast local path for trying DeepSeek models.
- DeepSeek V4
Current API generation (Pro/Flash) for general and agent workloads.
Recommended for
- DeepSeek Models
How V4 / V3 / R1 fit coding, reasoning, and self-host stacks.
- Large Language Models
DeepSeek is a key open-weight reference point in today’s LLM landscape.
Often paired with
- Hugging Face
DeepSeek weights and discussion concentrate on the Hub ecosystem.
How DeepSeek evolved
Key moments in chronological order.
- Model
deepseek-flash now serves DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on the API, web, and app. Calling method and pricing are unchanged.
- API
DeepSeek opens Search and Fetch APIs on its in-house search engine. Each costs $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests. Failed requests, empty search results, and timeouts are not billed. Calls made through server-side tools in DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code, and Codex stay free until 16:00 UTC on 2026-10-31 (00:00 Beijing time on 2026-11-01).
- API
V4 Pro API continues after planned Flash cutover
DeepSeek keeps serving V4-Pro-0813 on deepseek-v4-pro after 2026-09-14 with billing unchanged, reversing the 2026-09-10 plan to route that alias to V4.1-Flash at Flash rates until V4.1-Pro.
- Model
V4.1-Flash is the new hosted Flash SKU (API id deepseek-flash): CED MoE with native multimodal, MIT weights, and lower Flash list prices from 04:00 UTC 2026-09-10. Legacy Flash and Vision-Exp aliases temporarily route here. The launch post also planned to route deepseek-v4-pro to Flash from 2026-09-14; DeepSeek later withdrew that cutover.
- Model
V4-Flash-Vision-Exp multimodal API
Experimental deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp adds image+text at Flash rates; Files API enables free image reuse by file_id. API-only at launch; the alias routes to V4.1-Flash from 2026-09-10.
- API
V4 peak/off-peak API pricing live
Peak/off-peak rates replace the prior flat V4 API prices from 16:00 UTC. Peak hours 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC; off-peak is half of peak.
- Model
DeepSeek V4-Pro generally available
V4-Pro-0813 GA on app/web/API with agent upgrades; peak/off-peak API prices from 2026-08-16 16:00 UTC.
- Open source
DeepSeek Harness developer preview
MIT-licensed agent harness (dsh) with a plugin architecture (Cordis). GitHub repo created 2026-08-13; preview APIs may break.
- Model
V4-Pro and V4-Flash bring 1M context and thinking modes to the DeepSeek API.
- Milestone
Industry cost/performance shock
R1 coverage forces hyperscalers and labs to revisit pricing and open-weight strategy.
- Model
Reasoning model resets expectations for open-weight chain-of-thought performance.
- Model
MoE open-weight model delivers frontier-competitive quality at lower cost.
- API
DeepSeek API platform
OpenAI-compatible API makes DeepSeek easy to try in existing clients.
- Founded
DeepSeek founded
Hangzhou lab focuses on efficient, high-capability open models.
Products
Foundation models
Related tools
Related research
- DeepSeek-V3 technical report
Original Paper
- DeepSeek-R1 technical report
Original Paper
GitHub
Related benchmarks
Related rankings
Related guides
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