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DeepSeek Launches Search API, Priced at $0.75 per 1,000 Successful Requests, Cheaper Than Competitors
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DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, has released a Search API and a Fetch API. They let other programs search the web and read web pages for AI tools.
What happened
On October 17, 2026, DeepSeek released a Search API and a Fetch API. Search lets a program look up information on the web. Fetch takes a web address (URL) and pulls out the page content in Markdown, a simple text format. Both are meant for AI workflows, where an AI looks things up and then uses what it finds.
Key numbers
- Price: $0.75 (about 118 yen) per 1,000 successful requests, for each API.
- DeepSeek says its search engine handles hundreds of millions of requests a day worldwide.
- Artificial Analysis compared prices and found DeepSeek's $0.75 cheaper than rival search APIs.
- Tools that already use DeepSeek's API, such as DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code, and Codex, already use these APIs on the server side. These are free until 1:00 a.m. Japan time on November 1, 2026. After that, charges start.
Some background
DeepSeek's AI chat service can already search the web to answer questions, using its own search engine. The Search API opens that same engine to other developers, so they can build it into their own systems. On the same day, DeepSeek also released a new AI model, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017.
Why it matters
Search is often one of the costliest parts of an AI app. A lower price could make it easier for small teams to build AI tools that use live web information. It also puts pressure on other companies that sell search for AI to lower their prices.
What to watch
- When free server-side use ends on November 1, 2026, and whether developers keep using the APIs at the new prices.
- Whether rival companies cut their search prices in response.
- How accurate and reliable the search and fetch results are in real tasks.