What is DeepSeek, and who made it?

DeepSeek was founded by Liang Wenfeng in 2023 and is based in Hangzhou, China. It develops language models with openly shared weights. The company background is documented in the DeepSeek company overview.

Separate the names before choosing a service

Think of a model as the system producing an answer and a chatbot as the conversation window you use. An API is a connection that lets another program send requests. These labels help separate an employee drafting a message from a shop automatically processing incoming questions.

Write down which arrangement you need before asking for a quote. “We want DeepSeek” leaves too much unclear. “We want a person to review draft replies before sending them” gives a supplier a concrete starting point.

DeepSeek R1 explained without the technical detail

R1 is a DeepSeek model name associated with its January 2025 chatbot launch. It is not the name of every DeepSeek product. The relationship is described in the company history.

If a tutorial mentions R1, check the model name displayed in the service you are using. Record that name beside your test results. Avoid treating an old demonstration as evidence about your current setup.

What does an open source AI model mean here?

DeepSeek shares model weights, the learned numerical settings, but its training data is not openly licensed. That distinction appears in the description of its open weights approach. Ask a technical supplier to identify the exact model and licence before proposing a separate deployment.

Is DeepSeek free to use?

The official website and mobile app provide free chatbot access. API access uses a separate charging model, according to the usage overview. Keep these two options separate when planning your budget.

Start from the company's official website and follow its current account instructions. If you choose a mobile app, check the developer's identity. For your first conversation, use information already approved for public use.

• For occasional drafts, begin with the chat interface.
• For software integration, request a separate estimate.
• Before paying another service, establish who operates it.
• Before moving team work, inspect the conditions shown in your account.

My recommendation is to treat free access as a way to evaluate a task. Do not make it your entire operating plan after one successful conversation. Keep the original document and a manual way to finish the job.

How do you use DeepSeek for a real business task?

Give it a clear assignment with approved facts and a defined output. A prompt is simply the instruction you type. Write it as a short brief you could hand to someone helping your business.

Hypothetical example: an independent online shop

Imagine a small homeware shop rewriting its delivery email. The following is a practice scenario, not a report of measured results. Replace the placeholders with your own approved policy.

Draft a friendly reply to a customer asking when their order will arrive. Use only this delivery policy: [approved policy]. Customer question: [question with personal details removed]. Keep the reply under 100 words. Do not promise a delivery date unless the policy supports it. If information is missing, list what our team needs to check.

Read the reply against the original policy before judging its tone. Underline each promise. If a sentence commits your shop to something you did not approve, remove it and revise the instruction.

For a larger set of starting points, use the customer service prompt templates as a briefing checklist. Adjust each template to your task and assess the resulting answer yourself.

Ask for a specific revision

Instead of “make this better”, identify the problem: “The opening sounds defensive. Rewrite that sentence warmly, keeping the delivery conditions unchanged.” Save the version you approve alongside the instruction that produced it.

If email is your main use case, the email writing templates offer further structures to adapt. Choose one repeated message type before building a large prompt library.

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: how should you choose?

Compare them on your own work, using identical information and acceptance rules. This guide does not establish a universal winner. DeepSeek's openly shared model weights are a documented characteristic, but that alone does not settle which assistant will suit your writing task. See the model background.

Record drafting time, review time and the changes you made. Ask a colleague to review the outputs without the product names attached. Agree on the acceptance rules before looking at the results.

For the planning test, adapt a brief from the content planning templates. Specify the photographs, staff time and offers you actually have available. Reject ideas that depend on resources outside that brief.

If Claude is also on your shortlist, the Claude and ChatGPT comparison guide provides another reading path. Keep the same test brief across your shortlist so the choice stays tied to your needs.

How much does the DeepSeek API cost?

A current exact price cannot be established from the supplied extracts. The chatbot overview contains historical figures, while the opened official introduction does not display the full tariff table. Follow Models & Pricing from the official API documentation before committing money.

The official introduction documents a compatible API format for connecting software. Treat this as technical connection information, not a complete implementation quote. The setup requirements are described in the API introduction.

Request a usable estimate

For budgeting, think of tokens as the small pieces used to count text. Ask your supplier to show incoming text and generated answers separately. Request the model name, tariff date and assumptions behind the expected monthly usage.

• How many requests does the estimate assume?
• How long are the typical inputs and answers?
• What allowance covers repeated requests?
• What are setup, maintenance and review costs?
• Who receives a spending alert, and when should processing stop?

Use a small sample of your actual workload before approving a larger forecast. Ask for the measured usage from that sample. Keep the model charge separate from the fee for building and maintaining the connection.

For a hypothetical catalogue project, request an estimate for a sample batch first. Do not extrapolate from a single unusually short product description. Include a longer description and a case with missing information in the sample.

What information and review rules should your team use?

Start the trial with public or fictional information and a named reviewer. That is my recommended operating rule for this exercise. Decide what staff may enter before distributing access around the team.

Make the review concrete

Do not ask a colleague merely to “check the AI”. Give them a short list connected to the output. For a customer email, the list might cover delivery terms, product identity, the next action and the absence of unapproved promises.

• Replace customer names and contact details in practice examples.
• Keep passwords and access keys out of prompts.
• Compare every price and date with the approved source.
• Leave missing details marked for follow-up.
• Require approval before a reply reaches a customer.

For a hypothetical freelance project, use a fictional client brief while exploring the workflow. Agree with the real client on acceptable tools before using their material. The freelancer prompt examples can help you structure the assignment.

Keep style corrections separate from factual problems. A sentence you dislike needs editing; an invented commitment needs rejection. Write those rules into the task brief so everyone reviews against the same standard.

What should you try this week?

Run a short trial around one recurring task. Choose something you can inspect easily, such as rewriting approved product descriptions. Avoid starting with unattended customer communication.

1. Collect a few representative examples and one approved answer.
2. Write the task brief and remove unnecessary private details.
3. Run the examples and save the original outputs.
4. Record corrections and the time needed to finish each answer.
5. Decide whether to continue, revise the brief or stop.

Include an awkward example with missing information. Check whether the answer respects your instruction to flag the gap. Do not count a polished response as acceptable if it quietly fills in the missing facts.

At the end, ask the person doing the work whether they would reuse the saved brief. Require a concrete reason for their answer. Expand the trial only when you can describe the benefit and the remaining review work.