# Alternatives to DeepSeek DeepSeek is a free web and mobile AI chat assistant from the Chinese lab of the same name, offering its R1/V3-class reasoning models with no subscription. Its open-weight models can also be self-hosted, making it popular with cost-sensitive individuals and compliance-conscious teams who want an on-prem option. DeepSeek ranks #11 of 12 in AI chat assistants, with an Alt Score of 55. It is licensed under MIT, free from Free and available on Web, iOS and Android. 7 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/deepseek/ Category: AI chat assistants ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Casual users who want a free, ad-free AI chat assistant with web search and reasoning modes, and developers who want a low-cost, OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible API and openly licensed model weights to self-host or integrate into their own tools. - **What you get**: Free access to DeepSeek's chat assistant on the web and native iOS/Android apps, with a web search plus "Deep-Think"/reasoning mode, file upload with text extraction, and image upload. The current model lineup (DeepSeek-V4-Flash and DeepSeek-V4-Pro) is selectable in the app via Instant/Expert modes and is also exposed through a metered developer API. - **How it works**: DeepSeek trains its own large language models and serves them for free through chat.deepseek.com and its mobile apps, while offering the same models through a separate, usage-based API billed per input/output token (api.deepseek.com). Released model versions, such as DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp, are also published as open-source weights and code under the MIT license on GitHub and Hugging Face, so they can be downloaded and self-hosted independently of DeepSeek's own service. ## Profile - **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-30) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Platforms**: Web, iOS, Android - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-30) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [ChatGPT](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/chatgpt.md) | 96 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, Windows | | 2 | [Gemini](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/gemini.md) | 96 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, macOS | | 3 | [Le Chat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/le-chat.md) | 96 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android | | 4 | [Claude](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/claude.md) | 93 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, Windows | | 5 | [Grok](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/grok.md) | 89 | ? | Web, iOS, Android | | 6 | [LibreChat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/librechat.md) | 85 | MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web | | 7 | [Poe](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/poe.md) | 85 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, macOS | | 8 | [Qwen Chat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/qwen.md) | 81 | ? | Web, iOS, macOS, Android | | 9 | [Microsoft Copilot](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/microsoft-copilot.md) | 78 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | | 10 | [Meta AI](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/meta-ai.md) | 70 | ? | Web, iOS, Android | | 11 | [Perplexity](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/perplexity.md) | 55 | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Web | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | AI chat assistants checklist | DeepSeek | ChatGPT | Gemini | Le Chat | Claude | Grok | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Free | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | | Starts at | Free | $20/month | $19.99/month | $14.99/month | $17/month | ? | | License | MIT | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | ? | | Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | Web, iOS, Android, macOS | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux | Web, iOS, Android | | Underlying models available | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Web browsing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | File & image upload | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Image generation | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | Code execution | ? | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Voice conversation | ? | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | | Memory across chats | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | | API access | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Free tier message limits | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Team / enterprise plan | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Data used for training (opt-out) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Custom instructions / system prompts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ## Sources Sources for DeepSeek. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: MIT — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: License covers DeepSeek's open-sourced model weights/code releases (e.g. the DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp GitHub repo). The hosted chat.deepseek.com service itself has no separately published license. - Quote: “MIT License Copyright (c) 2025 DeepSeek” - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Applies to the chat.deepseek.com web app and mobile app. DeepSeek separately sells usage-based API access (see starting_price note); that is captured in the API access checklist cell, not folded into - Quote: “100% FREE - No ads, no in-app purchases” - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: The chat product has no paid consumer tier. The separate developer API is usage-based; cheapest listed rate is $0.14 per 1M input tokens (cache miss) for deepseek-v4-flash, per https://api-docs.deepse - Quote: “🆓 FREE to use with seamless interaction” - **Platforms**: Web, iOS, Android — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: "App" confirmed as iOS + Android by https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news250115: 'Now officially available on App Store & Google Play & Major Android markets.' No vendor evidence found for a native - Quote: “👉 Now live on App, Web, and API” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Most recent official release announcement found, dated 2026/04/24, ahead of the 2026-07-30 research date. - Quote: “DeepSeek-V4 Preview is officially live & open-sourced!” - **Underlying models available**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash are both selectable in chat; the API model list (https://api-docs.deepseek.com/api/list-models) exposes the same deepseek-v4-flash / deepseek-v4-pro pair. - Quote: “Try it now at chat.deepseek.com via Expert Mode / Instant Mode.” - **Web browsing**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “🔍 Web search & Deep-Think mode” - **File & image upload**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Image upload separately confirmed by the vendor FAQ troubleshooting entry "Why did the image upload fail?" (Unsupported image format / No extractable text in the image) at https://static.deepseek.com/ - Quote: “📄 File upload & text extraction” - **API access**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Full REST API with OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible request formats; see https://api-docs.deepseek.com/api/create-chat-completion - Quote: “MODEL deepseek-v4-flash deepseek-v4-pro BASE URL (OpenAI Format) https://api.deepseek.com” - **Team / enterprise plan**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Same FAQ category also states: "There is currently no difference in user benefits or product features between Personal and Enterprise Verified accounts" (FAQ id verification-types) — enterprise real-n - Quote: “There is a unified pricing standard and no tiered plans.” - **Data used for training (opt-out)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Corroborated by https://cdn.deepseek.com/policies/en-US/model-algorithm-disclosure.html: "Users are also given the right to opt out. For information on how to opt out of AI training, please refer to t - Quote: “the right to opt-out of using your Personal Data for training our models or optimizing our technologies.” - **Custom instructions / system prompts**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Confirmed at the API level (system-role message in Create Chat Completion). No vendor documentation found for a consumer-facing "custom instructions" settings toggle inside the chat app itself. - Quote: “System message ... content string required The contents of the system message.” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/