DeepSeek Opens Search & Fetch API: From Launch to Real-World Tests

Episode 1 · DeepSeek Opens Search & Fetch APIs at $0.75 per 1,000 Calls (2026-10-17, 12 posts)

On October 17, DeepSeek opened its Search API and Fetch API to everyone, both powered by its in-house search engine that the company says handles hundreds of millions of requests daily and indexes hundreds of billions of multilingual pages. The Search API returns structured web results while the Fetch API retrieves single pages as Markdown. The aggressive pricing—far below competitors—drew wide attention.

Confirmed

• Pricing is $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests (about RMB 5), billed per request rather than per token or result; @thejasminejade confirmed the API is free until November 1, matching @teortaxesTex's note that billing starts in two weeks
• Failed requests, empty results, and timeouts are free; each endpoint has its own rate limits
• @petrusenkomax notes both APIs use the same bearer auth as the main API and return raw JSON; the Search API accepts 1–128 character queries and returns 1–50 results (default 10)
• @lilyraynyc and @churchkey (repost) highlight the price gap: @churchkey puts it at about 1/19 of Gemini's, while @EXM7777 (repost) notes Brave charges $5 per 1,000, with OpenAI and Anthropic similarly far pricier
• @jiqizhixin adds the API can be used via DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code, and similar tools
• The company says the engine applies extensive filtering against modern SEO/GEO manipulation
• @teortaxesTex notes V4.1 Flash 1017 shipped the same day; API docs and the open platform added Search/Fetch endpoints plus a "function calls" usage stat
• Early hands-on: @vista8 reports excellent search quality, with Fetch even reading WeChat article bodies; @EXM7777 (repost) cautions raw results are not agent-friendly—vague queries yield vague answers and English results are uneven—requiring skill wrappers

Unconfirmed

• The endpoints first appeared quietly in official docs; because web search is only enabled for V4 Pro (ignored on Flash), @teortaxesTex and others speculate this prepares the way for V4.1 Pro, which DeepSeek has not confirmed

Why it matters

• This is DeepSeek's first move to commercialize its underlying search capability as a standalone API, entering the search API market at a fraction of incumbents' prices
• Success-based billing with free failures plus the free window through November 1 lowers the barrier for developers to try it
• A proprietary engine with SEO/GEO manipulation filtering signals a bet on AI-native search infrastructure and hints at upgraded web access for future flagship models
• The ability to fetch WeChat article content adds appeal for Chinese developer use cases, though testers note raw results need wrapping for agent use

• DeepSeek launches standalone Search & Fetch APIs at ~$0.70 per 1,000 successful requests, failures free — teortaxesTex · 2026-10-17
• DeepSeek ships Search/Fetch APIs; docs hint at V4.1 Pro launch — teortaxesTex · 2026-10-17
• DeepSeek opens Search & Fetch APIs at $0.75 per 1,000 calls — deepseek_ai · 2026-10-17
• DeepSeek opens up its in-house Search API at ¥5 per 1,000 calls, free until Nov 2026 — teortaxesTex · 2026-10-17
• DeepSeek built its own search engine to filter SEO spam, pricing new Search/Fetch APIs at $0.75 per 1,000 requests — lilyraynyc · 2026-10-17
• DeepSeek apparently has a Search API — one user plans to test it with refunded credits — thejasminejade · 2026-10-18
• DeepSeek prices Search & Fetch APIs at $0.75/1k calls, vs $10 at OpenAI and $14 at Gemini — churchkey · 2026-10-18
• DeepSeek's Search & Fetch API costs just $0.75 per 1,000 calls, and it can read WeChat articles — vista8 · 2026-10-18
• DeepSeek's Search API Is Free Until November 1 — thejasminejade · 2026-10-18
• DeepSeek launches standalone Search & Fetch APIs at $0.75 per 1,000 requests — jiqizhixin · 2026-10-18
• DeepSeek opens its search API at $0.75/1k queries; open-source BetterSearch skill wraps it for agents — EXM7777 · 2026-10-18
• DeepSeek launches Search and Fetch APIs at $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests — petrusenko_max · 2026-10-18

Episode 2 · DeepSeek Opens Search & Fetch API, 110 Calls for $0.08 in Test (2026-10-19, 2 posts)

DeepSeek fully opened its Search & Fetch API priced at $0.75 per 1,000 calls per endpoint. An SEO expert's test of 110 calls cost just $0.08, but found the authority score appears tied to domains and spam filtering has gaps.

• DeepSeek opens Search API: tester spends $0.08 on 110 calls, finds authority scores tied to hosts — gaganghotra_ · 2026-10-19
• $0.08 test finds DeepSeek's new search API scores by host, leaks spam despite filters — gaganghotra_ · 2026-10-20