A Beginner's Guide to Using the DeepSeek API in Python
By
Jieming Liang
Summary
A beginner-friendly tutorial on using the DeepSeek API in Python. The article explains why DeepSeek is a great first API to learn — it's significantly cheaper than major US models and is OpenAI-compatible, making it easy to get started. It walks through the basics from zero experience to a first working API call, targeting newcomers who find other tutorials too advanced.
Source
bskyA Beginner's Guide to Using the DeepSeek API in Pythoncstu.ioKey quotes
· 4 pulledEveryone keeps saying 'DeepSeek is so cheap,' but most tutorials jump straight into the advanced stuff.
So here's the version I wish I'd had on day one — from zero to your first working API call, no prior experience needed.
It's cheap. Like, an order of magnitude cheaper than the big US models. You can experiment all day without watching a meter.
It's OpenAI-compatible.
You might also wanna read
DeepSeek API Documentation: Getting Started with Your First API Call
This is a technical documentation page from DeepSeek explaining how to make a first API call. It details that the DeepSeek API is compatible
api-docs.deepseek.com·1mo ago
DeepSeek previews V4 AI model, claims competitiveness with US rivals and Huawei compatibility
Chinese AI company DeepSeek has released a preview of its next-generation AI model V4, claiming it can compete with leading closed-source sy
The Verge·1mo ago
DeepSeek API: Pricing and Model Specifications for V4 Flash and Pro
DeepSeek's API documentation page detailing the pricing and model specifications for DeepSeek-V4-Flash and DeepSeek-V4-Pro. It covers token-
api-docs.deepseek.com·29d ago
DeepSeek Releases V4 Preview with Open-Source Models Featuring 1M Context Length
DeepSeek has officially released and open-sourced the preview version of DeepSeek-V4, featuring two models: DeepSeek-V4-Pro (1.6T total / 49
api-docs.deepseek.com·1mo ago
DeepSeek-V3.1 Released with Hybrid Inference and Enhanced Agent Capabilities
DeepSeek has released DeepSeek-V3.1, featuring hybrid inference with both 'Think' and 'Non-Think' modes in a single model. The new version o
api-docs.deepseek.com·10mo ago
LMSYS Announces Day-0 Open-Source Support for DeepSeek-V4 with SGLang and Miles Stack
LMSYS Blog announces Day-0 support for DeepSeek-V4, a new AI model, with SGLang and Miles forming the first open-source stack for both infer