DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT: Difference & Comparison?

When we hear about artificial intelligence, or an AI chatbot platform, we directly talk about ChatGPT. The popularity of ChatGPT is beyond doubt because it is a pioneer of AI chatbots and is becoming an alternative to search engines. However, there are many AI platforms these days to compete with ChatGPT. All of them offer different advantages to assist the users for they daily activities. One of the fierce competitors of ChatGPT actually comes from China, which is named DeepSeek. In 2025, DeepSeek gained popularity when it came at the top of the most downloaded apps on the App Store in the United States. So, what is the striking difference between DeepSeek vs ChatGPT? This article will discuss the differences, DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT comparison features, advantages, and disadvantages between DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT. 

What is Artificial Intelligence? 

Artificial intelligence, otherwise known as AI, is a computer system that can mimic human actions, including its comprehension and learning, along with its creativity. The source of the skill and intelligence of AI comes from the training by humans. It utilizes algorithms to analyze and learn the patterns from an enormous amount of data. Therefore, an AI machine can solve problems, answer questions, analyze data, draw an illustration, and even write articles. 

The invention of AI was basically to help humans in their daily workloads, particularly to reduce redundant activities and make the work more efficient and accurate. Hence, humans will shift to focus on strategies instead of doing manual work. The implementation of AI can be seen everywhere these days. Without human intervention, AI can decide independently based on its intelligence to give recommendations for the users or even drive a self-driving vehicle. 

What is DeepSeek, and why has it become a promising AI platform?

DeepSeek is an AI-driven platform that launched in January 2025 from a small tech startup company based in Hangzhou, China. The launch of the DeepSeek R1 reasoning model has become a shock to all of the tech community and AI enthusiasts. This AI platform is claimed to be more efficient and cheaper as an ideal alternative to the US-based AI companies, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude AI.

The rise of DeepSeek is proof that not only do large Western companies dominate the AI industry. This is also a signal that China is competing with the US in the global AI race. The most striking innovation from DeepSeek is that it can develop an AI model with a lower budget, and even significantly less than a fraction of the cost of OpenAI,  Anthropic, and Google’s Gemini to train their models. It can train the model with a cost of only US$5.58 million compared to OpenAI with more than US$100 million. DeepSeek also successfully trains its model using only 2,000 H800 Nvidia computer chips, and it is well below the US companies that use more than 16,000 H100 Nvidia computer chips. 

The development of DeepSeek is extremely fast. Just over a year after its establishment in late 2023, DeepSeek has grown from a tech startup to a large company. In just over a year, 

Before releasing the DeepSeek R1, it released the DeepSeek V3 model. The DeepSeek R1 model is actually an improved version of the V3 model. This model claims to be powerful enough to compete with the large language models (LLMs) developed by OpenAI GPT-40 and Anthropic Claude 3.5. 

What is ChatGPT, and what is the story behind it? 

ChatGPT is a well-known generative AI platform these days. The AI-driven platform was developed by OpenAI, which was founded in December 2015. Open AI established by CEO Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and several scientists, including Elon Musk and Ilya Sutskever. OpenAI released the ChatGPT chatbot for the first time in November 2022 and successfully gained worldwide attention as the first AI platform. 

The release of ChatGPT shows the start of the AI boom era and the advancement of AI technology. Then, OpenAI inspires competitors to develop their own AI technology to compete with ChatGPT. The fiercest competitors of ChatGPT are Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude AI. 

OpenAI was originally a non-profit organization which focusing on AI research. The establishment of OpenAI aims to benefit humans as a whole and solve certain problems and tasks. This company then restructured to a hybrid company in May 2025, which means OpenAI Inc still controls the non-profit status. However, the majority of the subsidiaries of OpenAI Inc., called OpenAI Global LLC, is a profit-based company. 

Since 2019, OpenAI has developed a long-term relationship with Microsoft in researching AI technology. The US tech company has invested in OpenAI and allowed it to use Azure cloud infrastructure. This partnership allows the user to buy the OpenAI stateless API directly or through Microsoft. OpenAI and Microsoft state that the partnership allows them to have room for independent development as well as for collaboration. 

DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT: Side-by-Side Comparison

By looking at the development of DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT, we can see that the two have their own history to become promising AI companies. As the two have become fierce competitors, we shall try to compare the features of DeepSeek vs. ChapGPT to understand the advantages and disadvantages between them. Moreover, we can dig deeper into the specialisation of DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT. Here is the side-by-side DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT comparison at a glance. 

From the side-by-side comparison of DeepSeek vs ChatGPT, we can see that DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT has its own advantages and disadvantages. DeepSeek is relatively more reliable for solving technical problems than ChatGPT. On the other hand, ChatGPT is a multimodal AI tool that is more general and has the capability to create code, solve math problems, and create creative content, including images or videos. However, ChatGPT is slightly less in terms of technical compared to DeepSeek. 

DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT: Which is Better? 

For a better understanding of DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT, we can explain how the two AI tools are in a better position in several settings. As we clearly said, DeepSeek vs ChatGPT obviously have their own characteristics and best features to offer to users. Choosing the DeepSeek vs ChatGPT as your main assistant also relies on the goals and activities of the users. Here is the breakdown of which is better between DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT in several professions and utilization. 

Which one is Better for Business and Finance Professionals? 

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT have different approaches when it comes to business and professional utilisation. DeepSeek has more technical capabilities in helping finance and marketing professionals with numbers. The reason DeepSeek can provide real-time stock prices and trends in the market, as well as provide consumer behaviour, which is important to boost the business performance. 

On the other hand, ChatGPT is more on the side of creativity rather than technical. This AI platform is versatile and able to help the business brainstorm ideas, pitch ideas, draft articles and professional emails. ChatGPT is also useful for helping customers in order to automate the answers from an AI chatbot assistant. 

Which one is Better for Academic Settings? 

For academic settings, the best choice depends solely on the subject of study and the type of necessity. In addition to this, DeepSeek is a technical AI tool that makes it a better option for students or researchers who are studying Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The Chinese AI platform is a top choice for helping generate coding and debugging and learn about technical simulations. 

By contrast, ChatGPT is a better option for academic settings as a whole, not only in technical settings. We mean that ChatGPT can assist more for students, academia, and educators. This AI tool is great to help all parties in academic settings to draft a thesis, summarise, create a professional academic email draft, and take automatic notes for discussions. This is because ChatGPT has a smoother language and better language tone than DeepSeek. 

Which one is Better for a content creator? 

In this digital era, content creation has become a go-to in marketing. Therefore, content creators are flourishing these days to help businesses boost their brand awareness and promote their products or services. However, becoming a content creator is not easy because it requires being creative every day. With the help of an AI tool, the stressful job can be eased. 

For creating content, ChatGPT is obviously a preferred option over DeepSeek. ChatGPT is equipped with an advanced AI engine that allows it to be a multimodal AI, from creating text-based content to visual content. In contrast, DeepSeek is not a multimodal AI tool and is only a text-based AI tool with less capability to generate creative content for writing or email marketing and others. 

Which one is Better for researchers or analysts, and journalists? 

For researchers, analysts, and journalists, DeepSeek claims to be a great AI tool to monitor trends and news, also verifying the statistics and datasets. The Chinese AI tool indeed has the ability to analyse actual data and is great for creating engaging headlines for news. However, there are many inaccuracies in terms of informing about the news and real-time data. 

By comparison, ChatGPT has a different approach when it comes to helping provide data and fact-checking. ChatGPT assists journalists and researchers in giving a great summarization of news and factual information to users. Moreover, ChatGPT gives more details, a structured, and clear factual press release than DeepSeek. 

Which one is Better for general and hybrid usage? 

For general or hybrid usage to combine the data and creativity, DeepSeek vs ChatGPT have the capacity to do research and creativity at the same time. However, DeepSeek is still inadequate to create excellent creative content in comparison with ChatGPT. In contrast, ChatGPT is a comprehensive multimodal AI which is able to combine factual data and creativity. 

In terms of usage, it actually depends on the user’s perspective; Some people tend to use DeepSeek as their personal assistant because of their personal preference, and a similar perspective applies to some people who prefer to use ChatGPT as well. You can also combine DeepSeek and ChatGPT to assist with some tasks where DeepSeek has more advantages than ChatGPT, and otherwise. 

DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT API: Which One Offers Better Pricing? 

When it comes to pricing value between DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT, the more affordable and cost-effective tool is undoubtedly DeepSeek. This Chinese platform is reputed to be a great alternative to ChatGPT because it has a lower price with high capabilities. The reason behind its low price comes from the development of DeepSeek, which requires less than a fraction of the budget compared with its competitors from Western companies. 

DeepSeek offers all versions of its model for free, whereas ChatGPT only allows the old models for free users. In order to use the newest version of its model, you need to pay the highest pricing tier. Hence. If you want to use the higher capabilities of AI models and only have a limited budget, DeepSeek can be the best solution. On the other hand, DeepSeek vs ChatGPT also provides an API (Application Programming Interface) and has its own pricing lists. Here is the pricing comparison between DeepSeek and ChatGPT. 

From the pricing list, I have to say that DeepSeek is way cheaper than ChatGPT. It even allows you to use the most powerful model for free. Additionally, DeepSeek is a better option for developers because it provides easy integration and the lowest price for the API in comparison to other competitors. The difference between DeepSeek and ChatGPT is the pricing tier, while DeepSeek does not have any other pricing tiers other than the API pricing. Meanwhile, ChatGPT has a wide range of pricing tiers, including Go, Plus, Pro, and Business, as well as an Enterprise plan. 

Best Alternatives to DeepSeek vs ChatGPT

After looking at the comparison between DeepSeek vs ChatGPT, you might be wondering what other alternatives to these two AI tools are. There are other AI platforms in the market you can use or try first before planning to pay for one of them. We have assembled five alternatives to DeepSeek and ChatGPT that you can use to assist and solve your complicated tasks. The following applications are the best alternatives to DeepSeek vs ChatGPT. 

1. Gemini

Gemini can be an alternative to DeepSeek and ChatGPT. This AI tool was developed by Google to compete with ChatGPT from OpenAI. Among DeepSeek vs ChatGPT vs Gemini, all of them have the capacity to respond to and answer questions and are powered by large language models (LLMs). However, Gemini is more of a main competitor of ChatGPT rather than DeepSeek because it is designed to be a multimodal AI tool rather than a text-based AI platform. Gemini is still in the first stage of development, and it is still growing rapidly to become a robust AI tool. Who knows if Gemini in the future can catch up with ChatGPT and outperform the most powerful AI tool these days? 

2. Perplexity 

Similar to DeepSeek vs ChatGPT vs Gemini, Perplexity is another AI tools that use large language models (LLMs) to answer questions. Perplexity is initially established as an AI-driven search engine. Despite the similarity to ChatGPT and Gemini, Perplexity is a text-based AI tool that claims to have a great capacity for research, and it is more structured, with clear and cited answers for the questions. The advantages of using Perplexity rather than the conventional search engine like Google or Bing is that it gives the specific answer quickly and more focus. In comparison with other AI tools, such as DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, it is more focus to answer the question instead of widening to other topics or hallucinating. 

3. Claude 

Other than DeepSeek, ChatGPT and Gemini, you can also use Claude AI for alternatives. Claude is developed by Anthropic to compete with the most advanced AI platform, ChatGPT, to assist with daily tasks. However, Claude is not fully a multimodal AI tool as it claims; like ChatGPT and Gemini, this tool is similar to DeepSeek and Perplexity, which is text based platform. Claude claims to be more advanced in writing, especially long-form content with more human, natural, and ethical words than ChatGPT. Not only for writing articles, but Claude is also powerful for presentation documents, copywriting for ads, and other text-based content. 

Conclusion 

After discussing the differences between DeepSeek vs ChatGPT, we underline that the two AI platforms have their own upsides and downsides. The two AI tools have different approaches when it comes to innovation. DeepSeek concentrates more on solving technical problems, such as logic, math reasoning, and coding generation. On the other hand, ChatGPT highlights its innovation to become a comprehensive AI platform that is useful for creating content. In general, ChatGPT outperforms DeepSeek because it is comprehensive, and you can basically do anything with this tool. Please note that DeepSeek is the best choice for integration and offering extremely low-budget tools with great capabilities. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT

1. What is the company and person behind the development of DeepSeek? 

The company behind DeepSeek chatbot is Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd., also called DeepSeek AI. This company was established by Liang Wenfeng in late 2023. Just over a year ago, he and his company launched the DeepSeek R1 model in January 2025 to compete with other AI companies from the United States. 

2. What is the company behind the establishment of ChatGPT? 

The company behind ChatGPT is OpenAI. This company has initially created as a non-profit organization to advance the research of artificial intelligence. Then, OpenAI has decided to become a hybrid company with the control of the parent company still non-profit, but the subsidiary, OpenAI Global LLC, is a private company with majority ownership by the investors. 

3. Is DeepSeek better than ChatGPT? 

Based on the overall comparison of DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT, the answer is no. This is because ChatGPT has a multimodal capability to generate text, image, video, and audio content. However, it depends on your aims to use AI tools. If the answer is to generate coding text, then DeepSeek is slightly better than ChatGPT. 

4. What are the best features of DeepSeek compared to ChatGPT? 

DeepSeek has a strength in technical features compared to ChatGPT. One of the best features is code generation and debugging, which is better than ChatGPT. However, in terms of creative ability, ChatGPT is still the best AI tool option. DeepSeek still lacks the ability in creativity writing and cannot generate images and videos because it is not a multimodal AI platform. 

5. Can I use DeepSeek without paying for the service? 

Yes, absolutely. DeepSeek is free to use for all users, but you need to register an account in order to use this platform. In addition, DeepSeek has a generous amount of usage for all users in the free tier compared to ChatGPT. Even DeepSeek offers the latest AI model for free to all users, whereas ChatGPT only allows a free version for older versions. 

6. Is DeepSeek’s response faster compared to ChatGPT? 

No, DeepSeek is slightly less responsive than ChatGPT in terms of chat response. However, the difference is not that significant, with 1 or 2 seconds less than ChatGPT. The average response times from DeepSeek are quite impressive, with 3 to 5 seconds, while the average response times from ChatGPT are 2 to 3 seconds. 

7. Which is better, DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT for creating content writing? 

For creating content writing, ChatGPT is a better option than DeepSeek. As mentioned, DeepSeek has more technical and logical ability than creative, whereas ChatGPT is more general. Additionally, ChatGPT is more creative in terms of vocabulary and language tone, particularly in English. Therefore, it is still the best option for a content writing assistant even though pure AI-generated content is not recommended for SEO. 

8. Which is better, DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT, for a beginner to start using AI tools? 

For beginners, you can use DeepSeek and ChatGPT, especially to try and see which one of the AI tools is most suited to you. They are providing free tools to use. However, DeepSeek give its most powerful model for free to all users. In contrast, ChatGPT only allows the most advanced model for paid users and gives its older models for free users. 

9. Which is better, DeepSeek vs ChatGPT, for security and protecting the privacy of users? 

DeepSeek claims to have better security and give more privacy to users, and it provides advanced encryption to secure sensitive information. ChatGPT, on the other hand, also claims to have more protection and better encryption. However, all of the AI platforms might use the dataset from users to train their AI models. 

10. If I have a limited budget to subscribe to AI tools, which is better, DeepSeek vs ChatGPT?

DeepSeek is no doubt the best choice for a low-end, high-quality AI tool these days. The Chinese AI platform even offers robust AI models, such as DeepSeek V3 and DeepSeek R1, for free, with quite generous limitations. DeepSeek also makes integration easy through API with the cheap pricing for only $0.25/ 1 million tokens for input, $1.1/1 million tokens for output, and $0.07/1 million tokens for chase hits.