To use DeepSeek, open its website or app and chat for free, or self-host the open-weight model for data control — but keep sensitive data out of the hosted app, which stores data in China.

Using the free app

DeepSeek’s hosted chatbot is free to use on its website or mobile app, with generous limits. It is strong at reasoning, coding and maths. Use it as you would any chatbot — ask questions, get code, work through problems.

Self-hosting the model

DeepSeek’s models are open-weight (mostly permissive licences), so developers can download and run them on their own hardware or cloud. This keeps data under your control and avoids the hosted app’s data residency concern — at the cost of technical setup.

Mind the privacy trade-off

The hosted DeepSeek app stores data in China under Chinese law, and Chinese-origin AI apps have faced privacy scrutiny. So it is fine for general, non-sensitive use, but don’t enter confidential personal or business data into the hosted app. AI can fabricate facts, figures and citations with total confidence (a “hallucination”). Treat AI output as a draft and verify anything important against a reliable source — this matters most for medical, legal, financial and academic use.

If you find yourself juggling a separate subscription for chat, automation, transcription and image generation, one option worth knowing is a single platform that runs them together — osFoundry is one such agentic AI platform that consolidates chat, agents and internal apps in one workspace, with a bring-your-own-key model so you choose the underlying AI.

This article is general information, not professional, legal or financial advice. AI tools, prices and availability change fast — verify current details on the official source before you rely on them.