App experience moves to the API
DeepSeek has made the search, file processing, link reading, safety checks and voice capabilities from its own app accessible via API. Developers can enable these features with a few parameters or call tools such as OCR, ASR and TTS separately.
Server-side handling with V4.1-Flash
The new capabilities run through the V4.1-Flash model, referred to as deepseek-flash, across the Messages, Responses and Chat Completions endpoints. Tool calls and context assembly are handled server-side, so developers don't need to set up these processes separately.
Key capabilities
- Web search: Searches the web or images with citations when thinking mode is off.
- Deep thinking search: Can search and read pages during multi-step reasoning.
- File input: Parses PDFs, Office files and images into conversation context.
- URL reading: Automatically fetches links in user messages.
- Safety checks: Screens inputs and outputs, returning refusal indicators when risks are detected.
Notes for developers
DeepSeek says safety checks must be enabled in public-facing apps. Developers remain responsible for content moderation, model registration and labeling AI-generated content. The company also released an open-source frontend demo that supports importing DeepSeek conversation history.
Pricing
Extended capabilities incur tool usage fees on top of standard token charges. DeepSeek shares a tool-based pricing breakdown in its API documentation.
