Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

DeepSeek is a generative AI chatbot – similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT – that can carry on conversations and answer user questions in a human-like way. It was developed in China and launched publicly in early 2025. The app’s popularity skyrocketed upon release, reaching the #1 spot on Apple’s App Store within weeks (even surpassing the ChatGPT app in downloads). In simple terms, DeepSeek works by using a large language model trained on vast amounts of internet text to predict answers, allowing it to chat, explain information, and solve problems much like other AI assistants.

DeepSeek was created by a Chinese AI company called Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd., founded in 2023 by entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng. Liang Wenfeng also serves as the CEO of DeepSeek and had co-founded the hedge fund (High-Flyer) that financially backs the project. The company is based in Hangzhou, China, and operates as an independent AI research lab under High-Flyer’s umbrella. In summary, DeepSeek is a home-grown Chinese startup led by Liang Wenfeng.

DeepSeek’s capabilities are comparable to those of other top AI chatbots. It can answer general knowledge questions, carry on conversations, and even solve complex logic or math problems. Notably, DeepSeek is able to write and debug computer code and perform programming tasks on par with its peers. Users have used DeepSeek for help with writing and editing text, brainstorming ideas, translating between languages, summarizing documents, and more – much as one would use ChatGPT or similar AI tools. In short, it’s a versatile AI assistant that can provide information, reasoning, and creative assistance across a wide range of topics.

Yes – DeepSeek is completely free to use for everyday users. You can ask it as many questions as you want via the app or website without any subscription or usage fees. This is in contrast to some other AI services (for example, ChatGPT offers paid tiers for premium features, whereas DeepSeek’s full feature set is available at no cost). The company does offer a paid API service for businesses or developers who want to integrate DeepSeek’s AI into their own applications, but the core chatbot service is free and has no paywall or trial limits for general users.

Accessing DeepSeek is easy: you can use it through its official website or via mobile apps. The simplest way is to go to the DeepSeek chat web app (for example, at chat.deepseek.com) in a browser and sign up for a free account. For on-the-go use, DeepSeek has an official mobile app available on both Android and iOS platforms – you can download it from the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. Once you have the app or website open, you just need to create an account (using an email or Google login) and then you can start chatting with the AI. Because of its popularity, DeepSeek quickly topped the download charts on iPhone, indicating that millions of people accessed it via the mobile app soon after launch. In summary, you can access DeepSeek on the web or on your smartphone, anywhere you have an internet connection.

DeepSeek was designed as a bilingual AI, primarily trained in English and Chinese. In fact, it was built on a huge dataset in both English and Mandarin Chinese to ensure strong performance in both languages. The app’s interface currently supports English and Chinese (users can switch the UI language in settings). While the developers focused on those two languages, DeepSeek can also understand and respond in other languages to some extent – it’s available “in multiple languages, including English,” according to news reports. However, its best accuracy and fluency are in English and Chinese, where it was most heavily fine-tuned. Support for additional languages may improve over time, but as of now English and Chinese users will get the most reliable results.