ChatGPT
The default assistant, with the widest feature surface and the biggest ecosystem.
Pricing Free tier, a personal subscription, and business tiers billed per seat. API billed separately by token. source ↗
ChatGPT ↗Head to head
ChatGPT vs DeepSeek
DeepSeek's API costs a fraction of ChatGPT's and its models are open-weight, so you can run them yourself. For reasoning and code at the price, it is genuinely competitive. The question worth answering before you adopt it is jurisdictional: the hosted service operates under Chinese law, which is a real consideration for company data. Self-hosting the open weights removes that objection entirely, and is the option most reviews skip.
Checked 2026-07-29 · we re-check quarterly · how we compare
DeepSeek
Open-weight reasoning models, free in the app and far cheaper on the API.
open source
Pricing Free chat app. API pricing is a fraction of the US labs', and the weights are open so you can self-host. source ↗
DeepSeek ↗Side by side
| ChatGPT | DeepSeek | |
|---|---|---|
| API cost | Standard US lab pricing. | Dramatically lower for comparable tasks. |
| Weights | Closed. | Open — you can download and self-host. |
| Data jurisdiction | US company, US and EU hosting options. | Hosted service operates under Chinese jurisdiction. |
| Ecosystem | Very large. | Smaller, though growing fast. |
| Images & voice | Both. | Text-focused. |
| Reasoning & code | Strong across the board. | Strong, and remarkable for the price. |
Pick ChatGPT if…
- You need image generation, voice, or the wider ecosystem.
- Company policy restricts where data may be processed.
- You want the most consistent results with the least evaluation work.
- Your API spend is small enough that the price difference is noise.
Pick DeepSeek if…
- API cost is a real line item — the difference is large, not marginal.
- You want to self-host, which the open weights make possible.
- Your workload is reasoning or code rather than multimodal.
- You are willing to run your own evaluations rather than trust a leaderboard.
Pick neither if…
- You need cited, current sources; both will state things confidently without them.
- You have no way to evaluate output quality on your own task — cheaper is no saving if you cannot tell when it is wrong.
- Your data cannot go to any third party, in which case self-hosting is the only route, whichever weights you pick.
Every comparison here says when the honest answer is "not this one". A page that can only recommend is an advertisement.
Questions people actually ask
Is DeepSeek as good as ChatGPT?
On reasoning and code it is competitive, and for the price it is remarkable. ChatGPT is broader — images, voice, ecosystem — and more consistent. For text and code work on a budget, DeepSeek is a serious option.
Is DeepSeek safe to use?
The models themselves are open weights you can inspect and self-host. The hosted app and API operate under Chinese jurisdiction, which is the part your legal or security team will care about. Self-hosting removes that question.
Why is DeepSeek so cheap?
A combination of efficient model architecture and training approach, plus lower operating costs. The open weights also mean you can run them yourself and pay only for hardware.
Can I run DeepSeek locally?
Yes — that is the main practical advantage of open weights. Smaller distilled versions run on a good workstation via Ollama or LM Studio; the full models need serious GPU capacity.
Related
Browse the full catalog, or the open-source roundups if you would rather self-host than choose between two subscriptions.