Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
Claude vs DeepSeek vs Duck.ai
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Anyone who writes, researches or makes decisions for a living, plus anyone curious about Claude Code.
Pick it if: Anyone who wants a strong reasoning assistant for free, and developers watching their API costs.
Pick it if: Anyone who wants quick AI help without an account or a record of what they asked.
Claude scores highest overall, but DeepSeek gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Duck.ai |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Anthropic's chat assistant, at its best on careful writing and long documents. | A free Chinese assistant that's strong at maths, logic and code. | DuckDuckGo's private AI chat: no account, no stored prompts, free to use. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Free | Freemium |
| Starting price | $20/mo | Pay per use | $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | No | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Duck.ai |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.6Winner | 3.8 | 4.0 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 5.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Duck.ai |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser extension | Yes | No | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes | No |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | No | No |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | No | No |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | No | No |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | Yes | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes images | No | No | Yes |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | No | No |
| Learns your brand or style | Yes | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 14/ 17 | 8/ 17 | 9/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Duck.ai |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Trying it out and light daily use. | Chat appOur pick Free Anyone who wants a capable reasoning assistant at no cost. | FreeOur pick Free Quick private questions with no sign-up. |
ProOur pick $20/mo, or $17/mo billed yearly Anyone who uses it most days. | API (deepseek-flash) Pay per use, from $0.15 per million input tokens Developers building cheap features into their own apps. | Plus $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr Regular users who also want a VPN. | |
Max From $100/mo Heavy users and people living in Claude Code. | API (deepseek-v4-pro) Pay per use, from $0.66 per million input tokens Developers who want the stronger model. | Pro $19.99/mo or $199.99/yr People who want the top models privately. | |
Team From $20/seat/mo billed yearly Businesses with 2 to 150 people. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Start on Free to see if the writing suits you. Most people who stick with it move to Pro within a month; only go to Max if you hit the Pro limits every day or you're running Claude Code for hours at a time. | The app is free, so the only decision is whether the privacy trade-off is acceptable for what you're asking. If you need the model inside your own software, have a developer use the API or run the open model through a provider that keeps your data in Australia. | Stay on Free unless you also want a VPN. Plus is good value if you'd pay for a VPN anyway. Pro is $19.99, the same as ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, so only pick it if anonymity matters more to you than features. |
Key features
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Duck.ai |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Duck.ai |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Duck.ai |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude, DeepSeek or Duck.ai?
Claude scores highest overall in our ratings (Claude 4.6/5, DeepSeek 3.8/5 and Duck.ai 4.0/5). Claude is best for long-form writing and editing and reading and summarising long documents. DeepSeek is best for Maths, logic and step-by-step problems and coding help. Duck.ai is best for quick private questions and Using AI without signing up.
Which is cheaper, Claude, DeepSeek or Duck.ai?
Claude: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo. DeepSeek: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at Pay per use. Duck.ai: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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