DeepSeek vs OpenRouter
Compare DeepSeek and OpenRouter: free credits, features, and ratings. Which one is right for you?
Category
LLM
API Platform
Rating
β 3.5
β 4
Free Credits
0 undefined
50 requests/day (1000 after $10 top-up)
Refresh Period
one-time
daily
Resolution
N/A
Watermark
No
No
Commercial Use
No
Yes
Paid From
API $0.14/million tokens
$10 top-up
DeepSeek
DeepSeek's flagship model, the cost-performance king of Chinese AI. V4 is free to use, API pricing is 1/10th of GPT-4o. Excellent at coding and math, competitive with closed-source models in benchmarks.
Pros
- βExcellent value
- βStrong reasoning
- βOpen source for local deployment
- βCheap API
Cons
- βMay queue during peak hours
- βNot as creative as GPT
Key Features
DeepSeek-V4 free to useDeepSeek-R1 reasoning model200K long contextMulti-language coding supportTop-tier math reasoningWeb search capability
OpenRouter
API aggregation platform β one endpoint to access them all. 27 free models, accessible from China without VPN. Switch between backends by just changing the model name. Free tier: 50 requests/day, unlock 1000/day with $10 top-up.
Pros
- βAccessible from China without VPN
- β27 free models available
- βOpenAI-compatible format, switch models by changing name
- βDiverse model selection across providers
Cons
- βFree tier limited to 50 requests/day
- βUnlocking 1000/day requires $10 top-up
- βFree model quality varies
Key Features
27 Free ModelsChina Direct AccessOpenAI-Compatible APIUnified Model SwitchingDeepSeek/Qwen/Llama Support