Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
DeepSeek vs Kimi vs Qwen Chat
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: People who want an agent to produce finished slides, documents, spreadsheets and websites, and developers after a cheaper coding model.
Pick it if: Anyone after a capable free assistant with image, video, slides and website tools, and developers who want open models.
Qwen Chat 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 | Kimi | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | A free Chinese assistant that's strong at maths, logic and code. | Moonshot AI's assistant with a strong agent for slides, documents, sheets and websites. | Alibaba's generous free assistant for research, slides, websites, images and video. |
| Pricing model | Free | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | Pay per use | $19/mo or $15/mo | $4/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 | Kimi | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.8 | 3.8 | 4.0Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers the job it's built for, and how well the pieces fit together. | 3.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 5.0 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Kimi | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | No | Yes | No |
| Browser extension | No | No | No |
| API access | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes images | No | – | Yes |
| Makes video | No | No | Yes |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | No | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 11/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Kimi | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Chat appOur pick Free Anyone who wants a capable reasoning assistant at no cost. | Adagio Free Trying the chat and a taste of the agent. | FreeOur pick Free Most people. The free limits are generous for chat and research. |
API (deepseek-flash) Pay per use, from $0.15 per million input tokens Developers building cheap features into their own apps. | PlusOur pick $19/mo or $15/mo billed yearly Anyone who wants to use the agent most weeks. | Go $4/mo Regular users who want higher chat limits. | |
API (deepseek-v4-pro) Pay per use, from $0.66 per million input tokens Developers who want the stronger model. | Pro $39/mo or $31/mo billed yearly Regular users who run out of credits on Plus. | Plus $19/mo Creators making images and video most days. | |
Max $99/mo or $79/mo billed yearly Heavy users running several jobs at once. | Pro $99/mo Heavy video and image users who need priority. | ||
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. | 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. | Start free; most people never need to pay. Go at $4 is cheap if you hit the chat limits. Prices are App Store prices, so check the in-app screen before you subscribe. |
Key features
Pros and cons
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Kimi | Qwen Chat |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | DeepSeek | Kimi | Qwen Chat |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, DeepSeek, Kimi or Qwen Chat?
Qwen Chat scores highest overall in our ratings (DeepSeek 3.8/5, Kimi 3.8/5 and Qwen Chat 4.0/5). DeepSeek is best for Maths, logic and step-by-step problems and coding help. Kimi is best for turning a brief into a slide deck and research reports and document drafts. Qwen Chat is best for A free assistant that does a bit of everything and quick webpages and slide decks from a prompt.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek, Kimi or Qwen Chat?
DeepSeek: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at Pay per use. Kimi: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/mo or $15/mo. Qwen Chat: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $4/mo.
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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