How to Get a Free deepseek API Key (2026)
0 free models available — credit card may be required. Get your deepseek API key → Test free models →
deepseek FreeLLM Score
All Free deepseek Models — Context Windows & Rate Limits
| Model | Context | Max Output | Modality | Rate Limit | Released | Status |
|---|
What is deepseek?
DeepSeek's official API — V3.2 + R1 with 128K context, OpenAI-compatible.
DeepSeek provides direct API access to its flagship models — DeepSeek-Chat (V3.2) and DeepSeek-Reasoner (R1) — through its own platform at platform.deepseek.com. The API is fully OpenAI-compatible, making it a drop-in replacement. Free tier has dynamic rate limits based on usage patterns. No credit card required for registration.
- DeepSeek V3.2 (chat) + R1 (reasoning)
- 128K context window
- Fully OpenAI-compatible endpoint
- No credit card required
API Compatibility: OpenAI SDK-compatible (Chat Completions)
How to Get a deepseek API Key
- 1 Sign up at platform.deepseek.com Email or phone registration. No credit card.
- 2 Go to API Keys in the dashboard
- 3 Create a new API key
- 4 Choose a model deepseek-chat (V3.2) for general use. deepseek-reasoner (R1) for complex reasoning.
- 5 Configure OpenAI client Base URL: https://api.deepseek.com/v1. Fully OpenAI SDK-compatible.
deepseek Free Tier Limits & Pricing
deepseek API Setup Tutorial & Tools
deepseek is fully compatible with popular AI coding assistants like Cursor, Claude Code, and more. To see step-by-step API configuration instructions for your favorite tool, please visit our Global Configuration Guide →
Use Cases
What deepseek's free models are best for, based on aggregated model capabilities:
Limitations & Caveats
- Dynamic rate limits — unpublished, adjusts based on usage
- Only 2 models available directly
- DeepSeek models also available on OpenRouter and NVIDIA NIM (with different limits)
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use DeepSeek's own API instead of OpenRouter or NVIDIA NIM?
DeepSeek's direct API has two advantages: 1) potentially higher rate limits for heavy users (dynamic scaling), 2) always has the latest model version first. OpenRouter and NVIDIA NIM offer the same models but with fixed (often lower) rate limits.
What's the difference between DeepSeek-Chat (V3.2) and DeepSeek-Reasoner (R1)?
DeepSeek-Chat (V3.2) is the general-purpose chat model — faster, cheaper, good for most tasks. DeepSeek-Reasoner (R1) uses chain-of-thought reasoning and excels at math, logic, and complex problem-solving — but is slower and uses more tokens.
Does DeepSeek's dynamic rate limit mean it's unlimited?
No — dynamic means the limit adjusts based on your usage patterns and current server load. New users typically get lower limits that increase with consistent, non-abusive usage. For predictable limits, use OpenRouter (200 RPD) or NVIDIA NIM (40 RPM).