DeepSeek is a Chinese AI company founded in 2023, known for its exceptionally performant open-source models (DeepSeek-V3, R1) developed at a fraction of competitors' cost. With 125 million monthly users, DeepSeek has become a major player in AI search.
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence company founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng in Hangzhou. What sets DeepSeek apart is its ability to produce world-class large language models (LLMs) at a fraction of American competitors' cost — approximately $6 million to train its V3 model, compared to over $100 million for GPT-4.
All major DeepSeek models are released as open source under the MIT License, making them freely available for anyone to use.
DeepSeek's Flagship Models
- DeepSeek-V3 — 671 billion parameters (MoE architecture), rivaling GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet
- DeepSeek-R1 — Reasoning model exceeding OpenAI o1 on math and science benchmarks
- DeepSeek-V3.1 — Hybrid model combining V3 and R1 strengths, 128K token context
In January 2025, DeepSeek surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded app on the App Store in 156 countries.
DeepSeek by the Numbers
- 125 million monthly active users
- 22 million daily active users
- #1 downloads in 156+ countries (January 2025)
- Key markets: China (35%), India (20%), Indonesia
DeepSeek and AI Visibility
DeepSeek R1 is the first reasoning model to integrate native web search. It reasons about how to search first, then queries multiple sources in real-time — functioning as a true AI search engine. For brands, being visible in DeepSeek's responses is becoming crucial, especially in Asian markets.
A comprehensive GEO audit must include DeepSeek among tested AI systems. AI Labs Audit queries a wide selection of models from many providers, including DeepSeek, to measure your Visibility Score. Check our tutorial to learn more.