Let’s explain to you what it is and how to get a DeepSeek API. This is essential code to be able to link your production models. artificial intelligence when developing an app or creating a workflow that includes them. And although we have already told you how to get Claude’s either ChatGPT’sthat of DeepSeek It stands out for being much more economical.
We are going to start this article by explaining what it is and What is an API key for? from DeepSeek, trying to make sure anyone can understand the concept. And then, we’ll tell you step by step how you can get yours, as well as their prices.
What is the DeepSeek API and what is it for?
DeepSeek is one of the most powerful artificial intelligence chats on the market. It comes from China, and competes with Western AIs by offering for free what others save under a paid subscription.
DeepSeek is the name of the chat, but it is also the name of the AI model that makes it work. Think of the AI chat as a complete car, and while what drives it is the engine, it is the model. And then, from time to time new versions of these models come out.
Each of these AI models occupies many terras, and therefore, if you want to link it to an external application or project you will not be able to install it on your server. Instead, what you will do is connect your project to one of these models, build a bridge between your application and DeepSeek, and the key that opens the doors of that bridge is the API.
An API is a unique key that is used to connect an app and an external service. In this case, the API serves to connect other applications with DeepSeek, or rather, the artificial intelligence model that powers it.
The idea would be that when you write something to the bot that you have connected with an API, this bot sends the message to the AI, and that when the AI generates the response it reaches the bot and it can show it to me. And since the bot and the AI are on different servers, possibly in different countries, I’m going to need a bridge. And this bridge is the API.
The DeepSeek API is paid. You pay for each token consumedwithout a fixed monthly fee. First you will have to buy credit packsand then these will be spent as you use the API. When you make a request, depending on the processing it requires and the task involved, you will spend these tokens or tokens, and when you run out you will have to buy more.
But in exchange, what you have is the possibility of use DeepSeek in your projects to create your own chatbot or assistant, to automate tasks, to analyze texts, videos or audio and make transcriptions and summary, generate code, and ultimately for whatever you need. You will have the AI within the application, but not natively, but you will have connected both.
Token types and API prices
The price of DeepSeek APIs depends on several things. For a start, It depends on the model you want to use.. If you are going to use the most powerful model it will be more expensive, since it is a model that consumes more resources. Meanwhile, the lighter models will have lower prices.
There are two types of tokenthe input ones (Input) and the output ones (Output). Input tokens are the consumption of the text that you send to the model with a prompt. And the output is the response it generates. The price of the tokens is per million of them.
As for the price, it depends on whether you use a full or lighter model. This is a table with prices of current flagship models. You will also be able to generate APIs for older models, which will have cheaper prices.
|
Model |
Input cache hit (by MTok) |
Input cache miss (by MTok) |
Output (by MTok) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
DeepSeek-V3.2 (Non-thinking Mode) |
$0.028 |
0.28 dollars |
0.42 dollars |
|
DeepSeek-V3.2 (Thinking Mode) |
$0.028 |
0.28 dollars |
0.42 dollars |
How to get your DeepSeek API
To obtain the DeepSeek API, you have to enter its Platform developer website. The address is platform.deepseek.com. Once there, log in with your user account.
Once logged in, in the left column click on the section API Keys. When you do, you will see the screen with the list of API keys that you have created. Here, press the button Create new API key to create a new one.
This will open a window where you just have to name your API to be able to identify it among others that you create, and click on Create API key. And that’s it, with this you will have created the API and all you need to do is start buying tokens to use them.
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