Reportedly: DeepSeek API adds web search and fetch, charging ¥5 per 1,000 successful requests from Nov 1, 2026
Reported by IT Home · not yet confirmed by the company or a second independent outlet. We update this page when it is.
DeepSeek announced its Search/Fetch API will be charged at ¥5 per 1,000 successful requests starting Nov 1, 2026, Beijing time. The interfaces were previously free and are powered by DeepSeek's self-developed search engine, IT Home reported.
China context
- Original name
- 深度求索
- Outside China
- Not stated in the sources yet
- Claims
- Company-reported; not yet independently evaluated
- For builders
- Developers outside China using DeepSeek's API should verify whether the Search/Fetch endpoints are accessible internationally and whether the ¥5 per 1,000 successful requests pricing applies to non-China billing accounts.
- For investors
- Investors should monitor whether this pricing change signals a shift toward monetizing DeepSeek's search infrastructure and how it affects API usage volume and revenue.
Translated from Chinese. Quotes and facts link to the original sources.
DeepSeek announced that its Search and Fetch API interfaces, previously free, will be billed at ¥5 per 1,000 successful requests starting November 1, 2026, at 00:00 Beijing time. Both interfaces are driven by DeepSeek's self-developed search engine. The announcement was reported by IT Home on October 19, 2026.
The pricing applies to successful requests only, implying failed or empty-result calls are not charged. The interfaces are backed by DeepSeek's own search engine, indicating in-house crawling and indexing rather than reliance on third-party search APIs.
Developers using DeepSeek's Search/Fetch API will incur new costs from November 1, 2026, at ¥5 per 1,000 successful requests, which may affect budgeting for applications that depend on web retrieval. This move shifts DeepSeek's search capability from a free feature to a monetized service, potentially altering competitive dynamics among Chinese model providers offering search-augmented APIs.
For businesses using DeepSeek's API for retrieval-augmented generation or web search features, this introduces a direct variable cost of ¥5 per 1,000 successful requests. Companies should evaluate their expected call volumes and consider whether to optimize query patterns or explore alternative providers before the billing date.
A verifiable next signal is whether DeepSeek publishes usage limits, rate limits, or a free tier for the Search/Fetch API before the November 1 billing start. Another signal is whether competing Chinese model providers adjust their own search API pricing in response.