DeepSeek vs Qwen Chat
DeepSeek
chat.deepseek.com
Qwen Chat
qwen.aiSide by side
| Figure | DeepSeek | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · AI chatbots and assistants | 8.7 (#17) | 9.0 (#9) |
| Spec score · Emerging AI Software | 8.8 (#8) | 8.5 (#12) |
| Spec score · Virtual Assistant | 8.6 (#7) | 8.3 (#10) |
| File uploads | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile apps | Yes | Yes |
| Support | DeepSeek lists [email protected] on its official site and [email protected] for privacy questions and requests. | The privacy policy lists technical support among the purposes for processing personal data. |
| Web search | Yes | Its web search feature provides real-time answers enriched with authoritative sources. |
Plans
In their own words
DeepSeek
DeepSeek is an AI assistant for chatting with AI models, available on the web and through official iOS and Android apps. The free plan is listed at free and includes the assistant and official mobile apps. DeepSeek also offers an API, with deepseek-flash identified as the model name to use; legacy deepseek-v4-flash names route to V4.1-Flash. The API follows a format compatible with OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, and their SDKs can be used by changing configuration. It supports external tool calls, with a strict mode that checks tool schemas against supported JSON Schema specifications. DeepSeek says V4.1-Flash is live on the API with native multimodal support. Its desktop Harness can work in the background, edit local files, and handle long, complex tasks; downloads are listed for macOS (Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later) and Windows. DeepSeek is headquartered in Hangzhou, China. Its privacy policy says personal data is processed and stored in China, and advises users not to submit sensitive personal data.
Qwen Chat
Qwen Chat is an AI assistant powered by the Qwen series models, available on the web, Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. It can help with reasoning in math, science, and coding, as well as creative writing. Users can upload CSV, Excel, and text files for analysis, summaries, and visualizations; the service says it can handle up to 1 million tokens. It also processes audio, images, and video without requiring a model change, and can generate images and videos from prompts. Qwen Studio Artifacts can create, reference, and update HTML content and SVG images with real-time visualization. Mobile apps support voice conversations and questions about photos, while desktop apps can discuss email, screenshots, files, and screen content. An OpenAI-compatible API is described for building applications. The Free plan costs nothing. The privacy policy says prompts and uploaded content may be collected, and de-identified user content may be used to improve services, including AI models; it also says personal data is encrypted in transit and at rest.