DeepSeek vs You.com
DeepSeek and You.com are both AI assistants tools. DeepSeek is aimed at developers and small businesses, while You.com is aimed at small businesses and developers. Both have a free plan.
DeepSeek
Free AI chat app and low-cost API built on open-weight models
You.com
AI search and agents for work
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | Not published | Not published |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Built for | Developers, Small businesses, Enterprise, Freelancers | Small businesses, Developers |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web, ios, android |
| Country | CN · 2023 | US · 2020 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose DeepSeek if
Developers and cost-conscious teams who want strong reasoning and coding models at very low API prices or as open weights.
- Consumer chat is completely free
- Among the cheapest frontier-class API token prices
- Open weights allow self-hosting and fine-tuning
Look elsewhere if: Organisations with strict data residency or public-sector rules (Mistral Le Chat, Claude, ChatGPT Enterprise).
Choose You.com if
Teams wanting customizable AI search and agents.
- Model choice
- Cited research
- Agent builder
Look elsewhere if: Casual consumer search.
DeepSeek vs You.com pricing
DeepSeek
- Chat app$0Web, iOS and Android; no paid consumer tier
- deepseek-flash API$0.30/1M input tokensPeak cache-miss rate; output $1.20/1M; off-peak rates are half
- deepseek-v4-pro API$1.32/1M input tokensPeak cache-miss rate; output $3.96/1M; off-peak rates are half
- Search & Fetch API$0.75/1,000 requestsBilled per successful request
You.com
- Free$0100 Web Search API queries/day via MCP, no API key
- Pay as you go$5/1k callsWeb Search API; $10 free credit; no minimums
- EnterpriseCustomZDR, SOC 2, custom QPS, SLA support
DeepSeek · Key features
- Free chat app with thinking and instant modes on web and mobile
- 1M-token context window on V4 models
- API compatible with OpenAI and Anthropic request formats
- Automatic context caching with much cheaper cache-hit pricing
- Off-peak API rates at half the peak price
- Tool calls, JSON output and FIM completion for coding tools
Cons
- Hosted service stores user data on servers in China
- Banned on government devices in several countries
- Answers on politically sensitive Chinese topics are censored
You.com · Key features
- AI search with citations
- Research mode
- Multiple model choice
- Custom agents
- Enterprise connectors
- API
Cons
- Smaller user base
- Overlaps with Perplexity
- Shifting positioning
DeepSeek vs You.com: FAQ
Do DeepSeek and You.com have a free plan?
Yes, both DeepSeek and You.com have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.