Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
DeepSeek vs Duck.ai vs Kimi
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 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.
Pick it if: People who want an agent to produce finished slides, documents, spreadsheets and websites, and developers after a cheaper coding model.
Duck.ai scores highest overall, but DeepSeek gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Duck.ai | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | 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. | Moonshot AI's assistant with a strong agent for slides, documents, sheets and websites. |
| Pricing model | Free | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | Pay per use | $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr | $19/mo or $15/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | No | No | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Duck.ai | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.8 | 4.0Winner | 3.8 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers the job it's built for, and how well the pieces fit together. | 3.0 | 3.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 5.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Duck.ai | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | No | Yes | Yes |
| Browser extension | No | Yes | No |
| API access | Yes | No | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | No | No | – |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | No | No | No |
| Connects to other apps | No | No | No |
| Open source or self-hosted | Yes | No | Yes |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes images | No | Yes | – |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | No | No | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 9/ 17 | 10/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Duck.ai | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Chat appOur pick Free Anyone who wants a capable reasoning assistant at no cost. | FreeOur pick Free Quick private questions with no sign-up. | Adagio Free Trying the chat and a taste of the agent. |
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. | PlusOur pick $19/mo or $15/mo billed yearly Anyone who wants to use the agent most weeks. | |
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. | Pro $39/mo or $31/mo billed yearly Regular users who run out of credits on Plus. | |
Max $99/mo or $79/mo billed yearly Heavy users running several jobs at once. | |||
Ultra $199/mo or $159/mo billed yearly Power users running agents all day. | |||
| Which plan to pick | 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. | Try the free plan to see the agent's output. If you like it, Plus at $19 is the sensible plan, and the yearly price drops it to $15. Only move up if you keep running out of credits, which long Swarm jobs do quickly. |
Key features
Pros and cons
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Duck.ai | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Duck.ai | Kimi |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, DeepSeek, Duck.ai or Kimi?
Duck.ai scores highest overall in our ratings (DeepSeek 3.8/5, Duck.ai 4.0/5 and Kimi 3.8/5). 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. Kimi is best for turning a brief into a slide deck and research reports and document drafts.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek, Duck.ai or Kimi?
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. Kimi: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/mo or $15/mo.
Which is easier to use, DeepSeek, Duck.ai or Kimi?
Duck.ai rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Anyone who wants quick AI help without an account or a record of what they asked.
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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