DeepSeek

What it is

DeepSeek is a Chinese AI lab. The chat is free, with no subscription, at chat.deepseek.com and in its apps. The current lineup is DeepSeek V4 (V4.1-Flash came out in September 2026), with image support. The V4 weights are published under the MIT license, so you can run them on your own server; the API is billed by the token. One thing matters for business: under the service's privacy policy, data is stored in mainland China, and a number of countries have restricted its use in government. Don't paste client data into the chat.

Price

Freemium

Plans and prices, with the date they were checked, are on this page: What's current

Where the course teaches it

• 1.2AI without fear: will AI take my job?
• 2.4Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini: AI models compared
• 5.1How much to spend on AI: $0 to $2,000 a month
• ★AI Mayak Academy Glossary: 2026
• ★Local AI agents: minimal agents, OpenClaw, Hermes, Qwen-Agent

Alternatives

• 🤖Claude · An AI assistant for long documents, analysis and code, with Claude Code and Cowork on paid plans.
• 💬ChatGPT · OpenAI's mainstream AI assistant: chat, voice, images, the Work agent and Codex.
• 🌬Mistral Vibe · Formerly Le Chat: the assistant from French company Mistral AI for chat, files and code.

Official site