Summary of Key Points
DeepSeek has recently launched an AI model that can “understand images” (a multimodal visual understanding model), and the cost of using its API is extremely low—just 0.0011 yuan per image, which is almost free. In comparison, similar products like Claude Opus are several times more expensive. This low-price strategy could disrupt the AI visual services market, making such technology more accessible to ordinary people and small businesses.
Detailed Analysis
1. What exactly can this model do for us?
In simple terms, it’s an AI that can “look at images, read text, and understand the meaning.” For example:
- If you take a photo of a supermarket promotion poster, it can immediately list all the prices, discounts, and promotional details.
- If you upload a photo of a handwritten note, it can convert the text to digital format and help you organize the key points.
- If you send a financial report chart (such as a bar chart or line graph), it can analyze the data trends (for instance, “Sales this quarter have increased by 20% compared to last quarter”).
- Even if you take a landscape photo, it can describe what’s in the picture (“blue sky, white clouds, willow trees by the lake”) and answer related questions (“What type of tree is in this picture?”).
In other words, it can “translate” the information in the images into text or conclusions that we can use directly, without the need for us to analyze the images manually.
2. How affordable is 0.0011 yuan per image really?
Let’s do some math:
- DeepSeek charges 0.0011 yuan per image, which means you can use the service 909 times for just 1 yuan (1 ÷ 0.0011 ≈ 909).
- Assuming the price of a competing product like Claude Opus is 0.03 US dollars per image (about 0.22 yuan), DeepSeek’s price is about 1/200 of that (0.0011 ÷ 0.22 = 0.005)—a 200-fold difference!
For example, if a small business needs to analyze 100 customer feedback images per day (such as photos of product issues), using DeepSeek would cost only 0.11 yuan per day, or just over 3 yuan per month. Using the competing product would cost 22 yuan per day, or 660 yuan per month—a huge difference.
3. Why can they sell it so cheaply?
There are likely two reasons:
- Technological optimization to reduce costs: DeepSeek may have found more efficient methods for training or running the model, allowing them to process images with fewer resources and thus keeping costs low.
- Market strategy to attract users: Similar to how food delivery platforms offer discounts to attract users initially, DeepSeek aims to quickly gain a large user base (small businesses, developers, ordinary users) with its low price, and then earn money through other services (more advanced features, customized services).
In other words, either their technology is truly advanced, or they are trying to “lose money to make a name” and attract users.
4. What practical benefits does this have for us ordinary people?
- Smaller businesses can save time and effort: Online store owners can use it to automatically identify issues with products (e.g., “There’s a hole in this shirt”) without having to check each image manually. Street vendors can use it to scan promotion posters and quickly organize discount information.
- Learning and working more efficiently: Students can use it to analyze charts in textbooks, teachers can use it to grade handwritten assignments, and office workers can extract content from meeting boards.
- More convenient for daily use: For example, if you take a photo of a menu, it can help you identify the dishes with the most positive reviews; if you take a photo of a delivery receipt, it can automatically extract the address and phone number.
These functions used to be either too expensive or required complex processes, but now they’re almost free to use.
5. What changes will this bring to the industry?
- Competitors may be forced to lower prices: Other AI companies (like Claude, OpenAI) might need to reduce their prices as well, otherwise users will switch to DeepSeek.
- AI visual services will become more widespread: Due to the low cost, more industries will start using this technology—retail, education, logistics, and even everyday life.
- The focus of competition will shift: The competition will no longer be about “who can do it” but about “who does it better” (more accurate recognition, faster speed), or “who offers more additional services.”
Overall, DeepSeek’s approach could turn AI visual services from a “high-end tool” into a “daily assistant” that everyone can use.
One Last Question
With such a low price, will the quality suffer? For example, is the recognition accuracy lower than that of competing products? Or are there any privacy concerns with the images uploaded? These questions can only be answered through actual use, but for now, the price certainly gives many people the opportunity to try AI visual services.