Is DeepSeek cheaper than Perplexity Pro?

Yes. On their starting paid plans, DeepSeek is about 100% cheaper than Perplexity Pro — roughly $240 per seat per year.

Does Perplexity Pro have a free plan?

Perplexity Pro does not advertise an ongoing free tier as of pricing checked June 2026. Pricing starts at $20/mo flat.

Yes — DeepSeek's pricing page lists a free tier (Free chat; API ~$0.27 per 1M input tokens). Limits apply; see source for current caps.

Pick Perplexity Pro if you're researchers and heavy search users. Pick DeepSeek if you're developers who need cheap inference.

// comparison

pricing checked June 2026

Compare

🔎

$20/mo

AI search assistant with sources

Cheaper start

🔍

$0/mo

Open-weight LLM with cheap API access and strong reasoning benchmarks.

DeepSeek is 100% cheaper than Perplexity Pro on starting plans — roughly $20/mo · $240/yr per seat.

Formula: monthly = pricier − cheaper · percent = round((monthly / pricier) × 100) · annual = monthly × 12

Pick DeepSeek if you're developers who need cheap inference. Pick Perplexity Pro if you're researchers and heavy search users.

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Prices change often — verify on the vendor's site before switching.