Head-to-head · profiles checked Oct 5, 2026
Pick Perplexity for cited web answers and DeepSeek for a pay-per-token model API. Perplexity has a free Standard plan, Max at $200/month and Enterprise Pro at $40 per seat per month; the US Pro price is not confirmed. DeepSeek's documented offer is its API, with deepseek-flash from $0.15 per 1M input tokens off-peak. The DeepSeek chat app's price, free status and privacy terms are not confirmed.
Perplexity$10/mo (Education Pro (consumer, verified students/faculty))
vs DeepSeekFrom $0.3 (deepseek-flash input (cache miss))
We based this comparison on our Perplexity profile verified 2026-09-30 and our DeepSeek profile verified 2026-10-05, both built from official vendor pages; it uses no third-party benchmarks and no vendor paid for placement.
Perplexity is a web answer engine: each answer cites its sources, there is a free Standard plan, and paid plans run from Max at $200/month to Enterprise seats. DeepSeek's documented offer is a model API billed per 1M tokens, with off-peak rates at half of peak. We could not confirm the DeepSeek chat app's price, free status or privacy terms, so a chat-to-chat comparison stays incomplete. Pick Perplexity for checkable research and team controls, and DeepSeek for cheap token-billed model calls in your own code.
Based on our Perplexity profile verified 2026-09-30 and DeepSeek profile verified 2026-10-05; the DeepSeek chat app and the Perplexity consumer pricing page could not be checked because they blocked automated access, and no benchmark was run.
Our own captures of each vendor's public pages. Click a frame for the full-size image.
If you only want the answer, this is the table. Everything below is the evidence from the two documented profiles.
| You want to | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Look up a fact with sources I can check | Perplexity | Perplexity puts numbered citations on every answer |
| Follow current news | Perplexity | Perplexity runs a real-time web search for each question; DeepSeek's Search mode details are unverified |
| Get a long research report on a topic | Perplexity | Perplexity Research reads many sources and writes a full report |
| Ask questions about my PDF or spreadsheet | Perplexity | Perplexity accepts PDF, CSV, Office files and more up to 50 MB; DeepSeek lists no chat file uploads |
| Think through a multi-step problem | Either | DeepSeek offers DeepThink mode; Perplexity Pro Search breaks a question into several searches |
| Call a model from my app | DeepSeek | DeepSeek's API takes OpenAI- or Anthropic-format requests with JSON output and tool calls |
| Add web search results to my app | Perplexity | Perplexity's Search API returns ranked web results for $5 per 1,000 requests |
| Pay only for what I use | Either | Both APIs are usage-billed; DeepSeek per 1M tokens, Perplexity per request plus tokens |
| Give my team a workspace with SSO | Perplexity | Perplexity Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max include SSO and admin controls |
| Plan | Tool | Price | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (Free) | Perplexity | $0 | Practically unlimited basic searches; very limited Pro Search; limited Research |
| Perplexity Pro | Perplexity | Not confirmed (US price) | Extended Pro Search; up to 50 files per Space; files up to 50 MB |
| Education Pro | Perplexity | $10/mo | Requires student or faculty verification via SheerID |
| Perplexity Max | Perplexity | $200/mo ($2,000/yr) | 10,000 Computer credits per month; up to 500 files per Space |
| Enterprise Pro | Perplexity | $40/seat/mo ($400/seat/yr) | 500 Computer credits per month; files retained 7 days |
| Enterprise Max | Perplexity | $325/seat/mo ($3,250/seat/yr) | 15,000 Computer credits per month; 5,000 files per Space |
| Perplexity Search API | Perplexity | $5 per 1,000 requests ($1.00 Fast Search) | 50 query units per second; no complimentary credits |
| deepseek-flash API | DeepSeek | $0.15 / $0.60 per 1M input / output tokens off-peak ($0.30 / $1.20 peak) | Context 1M, max output 384K, concurrency 2500 |
| deepseek-v4-pro API | DeepSeek | $0.66 / $1.98 per 1M input / output tokens off-peak ($1.32 / $3.96 peak) | Context 1M, max output 384K, concurrency 500 |
| DeepSeek chat app | DeepSeek | Not confirmed | Not stated |
USD as published on each vendor's pricing page, checked Oct 5, 2026. Perplexity pricing in full · DeepSeek pricing in full
| Perplexity | DeepSeek | |
|---|---|---|
| Messages / rate limits | Free: practically unlimited basic searches; Search API 50 query units per second | API concurrency 2500 (deepseek-flash) and 500 (deepseek-v4-pro); chat app limits not stated |
| Context / file size | Files up to 50 MB; context length not stated | 1M-token context, 384K max output |
| Seats / team | Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max per seat; 30-day seat commitment in the first month | No team plans documented |
| Feature | Perplexity | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|
| Web search | Yes, real time with citations | Yes (Search mode, details unverified) |
| Reasoning mode | Pro Search and Research | Yes (DeepThink) |
| File upload | Yes, up to 50 MB | Not stated |
| Image generation | Yes (paid plans) | No |
| Voice | Voice dictation | Not stated |
| Agents / tools | Computer (credits) and Agent API | Tool calls through the API |
| API | Yes, billed separately per request and token | Yes, billed per 1M tokens |
| Mobile apps | Yes | Not stated |
| Perplexity | DeepSeek | |
|---|---|---|
| Training on your data | Free, Pro and Max may be used unless you opt out; Enterprise never; API Chat Completions no training | Not stated |
| Retention | Threads kept until you delete them; thread files 90 days (7 days on Enterprise) | Not stated |
| Business controls | SSO, SCIM, audit logs, configurable retention, SOC 2 Type II report | Not stated |
Taken from each vendor's published policy pages at the time of our check. Policies change; the source links are at the bottom.
AI answer engine that searches the web and replies with cited sources, plus developer search APIs.
Free stops at: Practically unlimited basic searches, Very limited amount of Pro Searches
Verified perplexity.ai (opens Perplexity website in a new tab)
Free · paid from $10/mo US · checked Sep 30
DeepSeek offers an AI chat assistant and a usage-priced API for its V4-series language models.
Free stops at: Chat app free status not confirmed; the fetched chat site returned an error to the bot. The API deducts from …
Pricing US price unconfirmed
They bill different things. DeepSeek charges per 1M tokens, from $0.15 per 1M input tokens off-peak on deepseek-flash. Perplexity sells monthly plans (Max is $200/month) and bills its API per request, with the Search API at $5 per 1,000 requests. The DeepSeek chat app price is not confirmed, so no chat-to-chat price comparison is possible.
Perplexity documents numbered citations on every answer. DeepSeek has a Search mode in its chat app, but how it shows sources is not documented in the pages we could read.
Perplexity Free, Pro and Max may use queries for training unless you turn off AI data retention in Account > Preferences; Enterprise data is never used. DeepSeek's training and retention terms were not verified, so check its policy before sharing sensitive data.
Use Perplexity's API for web search results or search-grounded agents, billed per request plus tokens. Use DeepSeek's API for plain model calls in OpenAI or Anthropic format, billed per 1M tokens with off-peak discounts.
Only official vendor pages. No third-party benchmarks, forum threads or press were used. How we review.
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