DeepSeek opens its web search for agents: $0.75 per thousand queries
Redacción IvokaOct 19, 6:00 PM 3 min
DeepSeek opened its search and page-fetch APIs to all developers. If you build or hire agents, the cost of searching the web drops sharply.
DeepSeek opened its Search and Fetch APIs to all developers (search the web and read a page) at $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests each, according to its documentation published October 17.
How billing works: a request only counts if it returns a result. Failed requests, empty searches and timeouts are not billed, and the number of results does not change the price. Also, calls made by DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code or Codex through DeepSeek's API are free for now; per-request billing starts November 1 (Beijing time).
Why it matters to a small business: if an agent makes five searches and three page reads per task, the search bill can exceed the model bill. A DEV Community analysis estimates 10,000 runs would cost $60 with DeepSeek, versus $448 with Tavily and $700 with Bing grounding.
The caveats: the same piece notes a cap of 5 queries per second and that queries go to China. If your agent handles customer data or sensitive information, think it through before connecting it.
Who it's for: mostly people who already build agents or hire someone to build them. If you only use chatbots, there's nothing to do.
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