How much does the DeepSeek Search API cost?

$0.75 per 1,000 successful requests, per DeepSeek's pricing page. The Fetch API costs the same, and tokens are billed separately.

When does DeepSeek start charging for web search in Claude Code?

At 00:00 Beijing time on Nov 1, 2026, which is 16:00 UTC and noon ET on Oct 31. Until then, search and fetch tool calls from Claude Code, Codex and DeepSeek Harness are free.

Do failed or empty DeepSeek searches cost money?

No. DeepSeek bills a request only when it returns HTTP 200 with a result, so errors, timeouts and searches with no results are free.

Does asking for more search results cost more?

No. The count setting (1 to 50 results) doesn't change the price. Each successful search is one billable request.

Is DeepSeek web search cheaper than Claude or OpenAI web search?

Yes, per search. DeepSeek charges $0.75 per 1,000 against $10 per 1,000 on the Claude and OpenAI APIs. Claude's web fetch tool has no per-request fee, though, so fetching is cheaper there.

How do I stop Codex from using DeepSeek web search?

Set web_search to "disabled" in ~/.codex/config.toml and restart Codex. DeepSeek's setup script does this by default, and search only works with deepseek-v4-pro anyway.

DeepSeek Search API pricing: free tool calls end Oct 31

What changes on Oct 31 for Claude Code and Codex users?

If you run Claude Code or Codex on a DeepSeek API key, their web searches stop being free at noon ET on Oct 31. DeepSeek's pricing page says these server-side tool calls "already hit the Search and Fetch APIs" and are "currently free of charge; per-request billing starts at 00:00 Beijing time on November 1, 2026."

DeepSeek hasn't announced any other change. Model tokens are billed as before, and the search charge comes out of the same prepaid balance. DeepSeek uses any granted (bonus) balance first.

Where you are	Billing starts
China (Beijing time)	Sun Nov 1, midnight
UTC	Sat Oct 31, 4 PM
US Eastern (ET)	Sat Oct 31, noon
US Pacific (PT)	Sat Oct 31, 9 AM
UK	Sat Oct 31, 4 PM
Central Europe (Berlin, Paris)	Sat Oct 31, 5 PM
India (IST)	Sat Oct 31, 9:30 PM

DeepSeek gives 00:00 Beijing time on Nov 1 and, in its Oct 17 announcement, 16:00 UTC on Oct 31. Local times are our conversion. US clocks are still on daylight time that day.

Claude Code adds a second cost on top. DeepSeek's Claude Code setup guide says a web search "generates additional LLM API requests to summarize the retrieved search content," so you pay model tokens for that summary as well as the search itself.

Codex is different. DeepSeek's Codex setup guide says built-in web search only works with deepseek-v4-pro, and its one-click setup script turns it off. If you used that script and never switched search to "live", Codex won't run up search charges.

How much will DeepSeek web search cost you?

Not much at hobby scale. A coding session that runs 40 searches costs 3 cents. Per search, DeepSeek is about 13 times cheaper than the web search tools on the Claude and OpenAI APIs, which both charge $10 per 1,000.

Searches a day	DeepSeek	Claude API	OpenAI API
100 (A few searches an hour)	$2.25	$30.00	$30.00
1,000 (A busy agent or small app)	$22.50	$300	$300
10,000 (A production app)	$225	$3,000	$3,000

Our estimate: per-request fees for 30 days, tokens not included. Rates from DeepSeek, Anthropic and OpenAI pricing pages, read Oct 28, 2026. All three also bill the search content the model reads as input tokens.

Fetching a page is the exception. Anthropic says its web fetch tool costs nothing beyond tokens, so on the Claude API fetching is cheaper than DeepSeek's $0.75 per 1,000. For search, DeepSeek comes out well ahead.

Tokens can matter more than the request fee. Search results land in the model's context as input, and DeepSeek says each result's summary runs 600 to 800 characters, so ten results is several thousand characters per search. See DeepSeek off-peak hours for how to halve the token side.

How to turn off DeepSeek web search in Claude Code and Codex

Codex: set web_search = "disabled" in ~/.codex/config.toml and restart Codex. That's what DeepSeek's setup script writes, per its Codex guide.
Claude Code: add "WebSearch" to the permissions.deny list in your settings file. Anthropic's permissions docs say a bare tool name in a deny rule removes the tool so Claude never sees it. DeepSeek's Claude Code guide only describes search going through its API. Deny "WebFetch" too if you want no tool calls at all.
Keep it, but watch it: search is cheap at $0.75 per 1,000. An agent that searches 50 times a week spends under 4 cents on it.

What we know and what we don't

Question	Answer
Price per request	$0.75 per 1,000 for Search and for Fetch (confirmed)
When billing starts	00:00 Beijing time Nov 1, 2026, 16:00 UTC Oct 31 (confirmed)
Failed or empty requests	Not billed (confirmed)
Off-peak discount on searches	None listed. The pricing page shows one price
A free monthly allowance	DeepSeek doesn't mention one
Which Claude Code tools hit the Fetch API	DeepSeek doesn't say. Its guide only covers web search

Using DeepSeek Search and Fetch in your own app

Both are plain JSON endpoints on your normal DeepSeek API key: POST https://api.deepseek.com/v1/tools/search and /v1/tools/fetch, per DeepSeek's Search and Fetch guide. Search takes a query of up to 128 characters and returns up to 50 results with titles, snippets and model-ready summaries. Fetch takes one URL and returns the page as Markdown.

Ask for the full 50 results if you need them. The count doesn't change the price. A search that comes back empty costs nothing.

For the token side of the bill, see DeepSeek API pricing, or compare models in DeepSeek vs Claude API cost.

Search API	$0.75 per 1,000 successful requests
Fetch API	$0.75 per 1,000 successful requests
What's billed	Only HTTP 200 answers with a result. Errors, timeouts and empty searches are free
Results per search	1 to 50 (the count setting), same price either way
Peak or off-peak	One price at any hour
Free tool calls end	00:00 Beijing time Nov 1, 2026 (noon ET on Oct 31)
Rate limits	Search 100 requests a second, Fetch 25, per account

DeepSeek Search and Fetch API pricing: what changes Oct 31

DeepSeek Search and Fetch pricing at a glance