DeepSeek - Top Chinese AI Free Guide

🏢 Provider Information

Provider Name: DeepSeek (Deep Seek)
Official Website: https://www.deepseek.com
Console: https://platform.deepseek.com
Type: Free Chatbot + Trial Credits (¥5, 7 days validity)


📋 Product Overview

DeepSeek is an AI company from China, focusing on developing powerful open-source large language models. DeepSeek’s models excel in Chinese understanding, programming, and reasoning, especially the DeepSeek R1 series which has outstanding reasoning capabilities and is completely free to use.

Core Advantages:

  • 🆕 Latest V3.2 Model - Released December 2025, enhanced Agent capabilities
  • 🇨🇳 Chinese Optimization - Top-tier Chinese performance
  • 🧠 Thinking Mode - Transparent reasoning process
  • 💰 Ultra-low Prices - 95%+ cheaper than GPT-4
  • 🎁 Free Chatbot - Basic chat free to use
  • 🔧 Trial Credits - New users get ¥5 (7 days validity)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Best for Chinese!)


🔐 Registration and Account

Registration Requirements

RequirementRequiredNotes
Account Registration✅ RequiredSupports email, phone, WeChat
Email/Phone Verification✅ RequiredChoose one to verify
Credit Card Binding❌ Not RequiredCompletely free, no payment info needed
Real-Name Verification❌ Not RequiredNo real-name authentication needed

Registration Steps

Visit Official Website

Open browser, visit https://www.deepseek.com, click “开放平台” (Open Platform) or directly visit https://platform.deepseek.com

Register Account

Click “登录/注册” (Login/Register) in the upper right corner. Choose registration method:

  • Email Registration (recommended)
  • Phone Registration (supports mainland China numbers)
  • WeChat Scan Login (fastest, for WeChat users)

Verify Email/Phone

  • If using email: Check inbox, click verification link
  • If using phone: Enter received SMS code
  • If using WeChat: Scan code to log in, no verification needed

Complete Account Setup

After first login, fill in basic information (optional). Go to console: https://platform.deepseek.com

Create API Key

  1. In the console, click “API Keys”
  2. Click “创建 API Key” (Create API Key) button
  3. Name the key (e.g., “My Free API Key”)
  4. Click “确定” (Confirm)
  5. ⚠️ Important: Immediately copy and save your API key, can’t be viewed again

🎯 Provided Services

DeepSeek provides two main services:

1. Chatbot Service

  • Type: Web conversation interface
  • Access URL: https://chat.deepseek.com
  • Features: Free to use, thinking mode has daily limits
  • Functions: Web search, code execution, file upload, chain-of-thought display

2. API Service

  • Type: RESTful API
  • Features: OpenAI compatible, ultra-low prices
  • Models: deepseek-chat (V3.2), deepseek-reasoner (V3.2 Thinking)
  • Trial: New users get ¥5 (7 days validity)

📊 Quota Overview

Chatbot Free Quota

Limit TypeQuotaNotes
Daily Messages50 messagesAll models shared
Single Conversation LengthUnlimitedSupports ultra-long context
Advanced FeaturesAll supportedWeb search, code execution, file upload

API Trial Credits

ItemDetails
Trial Credits¥5 RMB (may vary by promotion)
Validity7 days after registration
Recharge Price$0.28/M tokens (input)
$0.42/M tokens (output)
Cache Hit$0.028/M tokens (input cache hit)

🤖 Supported Models

Chatbot Models

ModelVersionFeaturesUse Cases
DeepSeekV3.2Latest flagship modelGeneral conversation, bilingual Chinese-English
DeepSeek (Thinking)V3.2Visible reasoning processComplex reasoning, math problems

API Models

Model IDVersionContextPrice (/million tokens)
deepseek-chatV3.2128K$0.28(in)/$0.42(out)
deepseek-reasonerV3.2128K$0.28(in)/$0.42(out)

Note: deepseek-reasoner is thinking mode, outputs reasoning process with longer default output (32K vs 4K).

Excels At:

  • 🧠 Complex logical reasoning
  • 🔬 Mathematical problem solving
  • 💡 Creative problem-solving
  • 📊 Data analysis and interpretation
  • 🎯 Multi-step task planning

Special Note:

  • R1 model displays reasoning process when answering, consumes more tokens
  • Suitable for tasks requiring high reasoning capabilities
  • Response time may be longer than V3

🌟 Core Advantages

1. Chinese Optimization

Superior Chinese Understanding:

  • Training data includes large amounts of high-quality Chinese text
  • Better understanding of Chinese context and cultural nuances
  • More accurate Chinese idioms and colloquialisms

Chinese-English Bilingual:

  • Supports seamless Chinese-English mixing
  • Accurate translation results
  • Preserves semantic and emotional nuances in translation

2. Programming Capabilities

Code Generation:

  • Supports 20+ programming languages
  • Complete project-level code
  • Code comments and documentation

Code Understanding:

  • Code interpretation and explanation
  • Bug location and fixes
  • Code refactoring suggestions

3. Reasoning Capabilities

Thinking Mode:

  • deepseek-reasoner displays reasoning process
  • Can handle complex logical problems
  • Visible reasoning steps, high transparency

Price Advantages:

  • 95%+ cheaper than GPT-4
  • $0.28/M input, $0.42/M output
Model ComparisonInput PriceOutput Price
DeepSeek V3.2$0.28/M$0.42/M
GPT-4 Turbo$10/M$30/M
GPT-4o$5/M$15/M

⚠️ Usage Notes

Trial Credits

  • New users get ¥5
  • Valid for 7 days
  • Can recharge after use, prices are extremely low

Quota Management

  • Chatbot: 50 messages daily
  • Resets at 00:00 Beijing time
  • API: Pay-as-you-go

Model Selection

  • General tasks: Use deepseek-chat (V3.2), fast response
  • Complex reasoning: Use deepseek-reasoner (V3.2), visible thinking process
  • Long context: Both models support 128K context

Rate Limits

  • No strict rate limits: API does not enforce rate limits
  • Context Length: 128K tokens
  • Max Output: chat: 8K, reasoner: 64K
  • High Concurrency: May need to wait, but won’t be rejected

API Key Security

  • Don’t expose keys in public code
  • Can create different keys for different projects
  • Regularly check usage statistics, promptly detect abnormal usage

📊 Comparison with Other Services

FeatureDeepSeekGoogle AI StudioGroq
Free Chatbot✅ 50/day
Chinese Performance🏆 Top-tierGoodGeneral
Reasoning Ability🏆 Visible thinkingNoneNone
API Price🏆 $0.28-0.42/MFree to use14,400/day
Context Length128K2M8K-32K

💡 Selection Suggestions

Reasons to Choose DeepSeek

Highly Recommended:

  • Primary language is Chinese
  • Need powerful Chinese text processing capabilities
  • Focus on programming and code generation
  • Need deep reasoning capabilities
  • Mainly use from mainland China

Suitable Scenarios:

  • Chinese chatbot development
  • Code generation and interpretation
  • Chinese text analysis
  • Logical reasoning tasks
  • Long text processing

Not Suitable For:

  • Need multimodal features (images, audio) - choose Google AI Studio
  • Need extremely high request frequency - choose Groq
  • Need access to various different models - choose OpenRouter

🔗 Related Links


📝 Changelog

  • January 2025: DeepSeek R1 officially released, powerful reasoning capabilities
  • December 2024: DeepSeek V3 released, significant performance improvement
  • 2024: Continuously optimizing Chinese and code generation capabilities
  • 2024: Increasing free quota, adding bonus tokens

📧 Support & Feedback

  • Official Documentation: https://platform.deepseek.com/docs
  • API Consultation: Contact via open platform
  • Issue Reporting: Submit issues on GitHub
  • Community Discussion: Join DeepSeek user community
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