DeepSeek : Free AI assistant with open-source models that rival top Western chatbots.

DeepSeek pairs a free AI chatbot with a research lab spun out of High-Flyer, one of China's best-performing quantitative hedge funds, independent since 2023.

The assistant answers in natural language, flips on a deep-thinking mode, searches the live web, and reads text from uploaded PDFs and images.

Its January 2025 open-source R1 model matched top US systems at a fraction of usual training cost; the chatbot stays free on web and mobile apps, and overseas users sign up with just an email.

Are DeepSeek's training data practices transparent?

DeepSeek has not fully disclosed its training data sources, raising similar concerns as Western models about copyright and data sourcing. It likely includes both Chinese and English web data. Privacy policy follows Chinese data regulations.

Is DeepSeek truly open-source?

DeepSeek releases model weights under permissive licenses, making them accessible for research and commercial use. This contrasts with most Chinese LLMs which are closed-source. However, training data and methodology details are not fully disclosed.

How does DeepSeek V4 compare to other frontier models?

DeepSeek-V4-Pro (1.6T total / 49B active MoE) rivals top closed-source models on math, STEM, and coding benchmarks. It leads all open models in world knowledge and agentic coding, trailing only Gemini-3.1-Pro overall. V4-Flash (284B / 13B active) matches Pro on simpler tasks at far lower cost. Both support 1M context, open weights, and full self-hosting under MIT license.

Is DeepSeek available globally?

DeepSeek is accessible worldwide at deepseek.com and through its API. It supports English and Chinese. No Chinese phone number is required for registration. It is one of the most accessible Chinese LLMs for international users.