Deepseek’s latest announcement made waves, even causing Nvidia’s stock price in the US to take a hit. The new AI model, Deepseek R1, hails from China and is an open-source chatbot that reportedly outshines ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. While Deepseek is already free to use, you can now access it directly in Perplexity. Here’s how to get started.

What is Deepseek R1?
Deepseek R1 is the latest AI model from the China-based company Deepseek. It’s a large language model (LLM) designed to excel at reasoning tasks, including problem-solving, answering questions logically, and creating various types of content.
Deepseek R1 has outperformed leading AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude in multiple benchmarks. Unlike many competitors, Deepseek R1’s code is publicly accessible. It is free to use and particularly strong in logical reasoning and problem-solving. DeepSeek’s R1 can logically check its answers or responses and fact-check it to arrive at better answers.
The model can handle complex tasks such as mathematical reasoning, code generation, and answering questions that require deep understanding. You can use the Deepseek chatbot either via the web or by downloading its mobile app from the App Store or Google Play Store.
How to Use Deepseek R1 in Perplexity
Deepseek R1’s reasoning model is now available for deep web research on Perplexity. While some users raised concerns about data safety and whether their data would be routed to China, Perplexity clarified that using Deepseek R1 through its platform keeps user data on ‘western servers.’ The Deepseek integration on Perplexity is hosted in US/EU data centers.
You can currently access the Deepseek R1 model on Perplexity Web. Follow the steps below:
1. Open Perplexity Web on your desktop. Sign in to your account if you haven’t already.
2. Below the prompt box, tap on Pro and change it to Reasoning with R1.

3. Now enter your query or prompt and tap the Enter button.

Your query will now be searched through the Deepseek model. Keep in mind that Deepseek R1 prioritizes logic and reasoning over speed, so responses might be slower but more thoughtful.

Plus, you get only three queries a day with the free version. For more queries, you’ll need a Perplexity Pro subscription. If you don’t have that, you can use Deepseek directly from its app or web interface instead of paying solely for more queries on Perplexity. This is a good option if you already have Perplexity Premium.
Perplexity’s Indian-origin CEO, Aravind Srinivas, noted that they are going to buy more capacity to keep serving DeepSeek R1 in American data centers. This makes using Deepseek through Perplexity a better and safer option, at least for the privacy-conscious.