DeepSeek opened its own web search to developers, priced per call, alongside an update to its cheap open model

Anyone who has built a research agent knows the model is rarely the awkward part of the bill, because the web search bolted on beside it usually comes from a separate provider with its own invoice. DeepSeek now offers both from one account, which turns its cheap model into something closer to a complete research stack and makes it easier to try without wiring up another vendor. The free window is the part to use. Two weeks is enough to run your own research or monitoring task through it and count how many search calls a typical job makes, which is the number that decides whether $0.75 per 1,000 is cheap for you. Check the update's benchmark claims on your own work too, since they are DeepSeek's figures and nobody has tested them independently yet, and remember that queries sent to a Chinese provider's search engine are data leaving your building like any other API call.