AI Recommendation
Should you use DeepSeek-R1?
DeepSeek-R1 is listed for chat, reasoning workloads and supports a 64K context window.
Use it when GitHub Models's free tier is enough for evaluation, demos, or light production traffic.
DeepSeek-R1 Free API on GitHub Models
Free API Available from GitHub Models
Classic open reasoning model for transparent math, coding, and deliberate problem solving
Free APIOpenAI compatibleReasoningTool callingJSON modeTextReasoning
API Details
Copy-ready connection details
Base URL
https://models.github.ai/inference Model ID
deepseek-r1 API format OpenAI Chat Completions
Technical Details
DeepSeek-R1 specifications
Context window 64K
Max output 8K
Status Online
Family deepseek-thinking
Knowledge cutoff 2024-07
Released Jan 20, 2025
Last updated Aug 6, 2026
Free listing since May 28, 2025
Input text
Output text
Capabilities reasoning, tool calling, structured output, temperature control
Open weights Yes
Weights Hugging Face
External benchmark references
| Benchmark | Score | Metric | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider Polyglot | 56.9 | percent correct | 2025-01-20 |
| Artificial Analysis Coding Index | 15.9 | index | 2026-03-11 |
| SciCode | 35.7 | percent correct | 2026-03-11 |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | 6.1 | success rate | 2026-03-11 |
Best for
- Chat
- Reasoning
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- Strong reasoning profile
- Reasoning mode listed
- Tool calling support
- Structured JSON output
Watch outs
- Free-tier rate limits apply
- Vision support is not listed
Benchmark Overview
Benchmark signals for DeepSeek-R1
Intelligence General reasoning and instruction following
18.5/100 Coding Programming and code generation
24.6/100 Agentic Tool use and multi-step tasks
3.1/100 Context Maximum listed context window
64K Pricing
DeepSeek-R1 pricing per 1M tokens
Input $1.35 per 1M tokens
Output $4.2 per 1M tokens
Free access Available GitHub Models
Rate limit 15 RPM, 150 RPD provider policy
Availability
DeepSeek-R1 availability by provider
We found 2 provider listings for deepseek-r1. Check model ID, quota, pricing, and API format before switching providers.
| Provider | Model listing | Access | Context | API | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | DeepSeek-R1 | Free tier | 64K | OpenAI-style | 15 RPM, 150 RPD |
| | DeepSeek-R1 | Free tier | 131K | OpenAI-style | Community-powered, no hard cap |
Compare
DeepSeek-R1 alternatives to consider
| Model | Provider | Context | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek-R1 | Chutes.ai | 131K | Free tier |
| Phi-4 | GitHub Models | 131K | Free tier |
| Mistral Large (24.11) | GitHub Models | 131K | Free tier |
| AI21 Jamba 1.5 Large | GitHub Models | 256K | Free tier |
| gpt-5 | GitHub Models | 200K | Free tier |
Typical Use Cases
DeepSeek-R1 use cases
Chat
DeepSeek-R1 is tagged for chat in this catalog and works with OpenAI-compatible client libraries.
Reasoning
DeepSeek-R1 is tagged for reasoning in this catalog and works with OpenAI-compatible client libraries.
FAQ
DeepSeek-R1 free API FAQ
Is DeepSeek-R1 free to use?
DeepSeek-R1 is listed with free API access on GitHub Models, subject to the provider's quota and account policy.
What is the DeepSeek-R1 model ID?
The model ID shown in this catalog is deepseek-r1.
What are the DeepSeek-R1 free tier rate limits on GitHub Models?
The listed free tier limit is 15 RPM, 150 RPD. Limits can change per account tier, so confirm against the provider dashboard.
What context window does DeepSeek-R1 support?
The listed context window is 64K tokens with up to 8K output tokens.
More about DeepSeek-R1
DeepSeek-R1 is a reasoning-specialized model that uses chain-of-thought deliberation before producing final answers, making it particularly strong at math, logic puzzles, and multi-step coding problems. Available free on GitHub Models with 64K context and 8K output, it is fully OpenAI SDK-compatible — swap in the GitHub Models base URL and your GitHub token to use it with any OpenAI-compatible tool. The free tier allows up to 15 RPM and 150 requests per day, somewhat more generous than the GPT-4 family on GitHub Models. If your task benefits from explicit step-by-step reasoning rather than fast single-pass generation, R1 is one of the strongest free reasoning models available.
For API keys, setup steps, and provider-level limits, see the GitHub Models provider page.