DeepSeek

OSSScore 8.2

Open-weight reasoning models with a low-priced API and official chat app.

Built by: DeepSeek · China startup
Categories: APIs & gateways
Pricing: Usage-based（API billed per token, historically priced below comparable closed models; see the official site.）
Open source: Yes
Self-hostable: Yes
International version: Yes
Data leaves China: No

"Data leaves China" means whether your data may be transferred outside mainland China when using the product.

Overview

DeepSeek is a Hangzhou-based model company whose open-weight, high-performance reasoning models (V3, R1, and successors) reshaped global model pricing: the weights are freely downloadable for self-hosting, and the official API has long been priced near the bottom of the market. For agent builders, DeepSeek matters as a cheap-but-strong base model, and many China-built agent products ship it as a default or optional model. Its role is model and API provider — it does not offer an agent orchestration platform. Teams that need workflows, knowledge bases, or publishing should pair it with platforms like Dify or Bailian, or build directly on the API. The official chat app and API store data in mainland China; self-hosting the open weights keeps everything under your control.