Earlier this month, China-based firm, DeepSeek, released its very own AI chatbot in the global markets, creating waves in the AI landscape. DeepSeek directly rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but is built on a fraction of costs required to build AI models of OpenAI. But is DeepSeek AI free? And how can you use it right now? Let’s see.

What is DeepSeek?

DeepSeek is a generative AI chatbot that can generate ideas and offer solutions. It can tell you the recipe for a mug cake, it can prepare an itinerary for your next trip, and it can also help you brainstorm ideas for your Monday meeting.

ALSO READ: What is DeepSeek: The Chinese AI chatbot creating waves in the AI space

It’s a chatbot similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, meaning that DeepSeek can do almost all things that these two AI tools can do.

Is DeepSeek AI free?

Yes, DeepSeek is a free AI chatbot. It relies on DeepSeek-V3, which is a capable AI model that can do most things you throw at it. However, the company also released the DeepSeek-R1 model recently, which is its reasoning model on-par with OpenAI’s o1. What’s great is that you use this reason model for free by simply toggling the DeepThink (R1) mode.

Sound good? Let’s see how you can use DeepSeek right away.

Here's how to use DeepSeek right now

DeepSeek is available globally, including India. There are multiple ways of using the AI chatbot. You can head to the official website or download the app on your phone. The latter can be convenient for most. So, let’s see how you can download the DeepSeek app, install it, and use the chatbot for free.

Step 1: Search for DeepSeek on App Store for iPhones and Play Store for Android.

Step 2: Install the app and sign up.

Step 3: Once you sign up by following the on-screen instructions, you are good to go. Just use it like any other chatbot.

You can ask simple questions to complex ones by typing your query in the search bar. You can also search the web for free. To use the reasoning model R1, users can tap on the DeepThink (R1) option located below the search bar.