Compare/Head to head

ChatGPT vs DeepSeek

Same facts, side by side: starting price, free tier, MCP, API and what each one is actually built for.

Starting price

ChatGPT

$8/mo Free tier

OpenAI's AI assistant for recruiting writing, research and analysis. Free plan; Go $8/mo, Plus $20/mo, Pro from $100/mo, Business from $20/user/mo billed annually.

Where ChatGPT fits

  • Recruiters drafting outreach, job ads and Boolean strings every day
  • Agency desks that want one project per req with the JD and notes attached
  • Teams that work in Excel, Word, Slack or Teams
  • Anyone new to AI who wants to start on a free plan

DeepSeek

Free Free tier

DeepSeek is a free AI chat assistant from a Chinese AI lab, with a reasoning mode and web search. Recruiters can use it to draft outreach, rewrite job ads and work through Boolean strings at no cost. There is no paid consumer plan; the chat app is free and the API is billed per token.

Where DeepSeek fits

  • Recruiters who want a capable free assistant for drafting and rewriting
  • Testing prompts before paying for a premium assistant
  • Developers building low-cost internal tools on the API

At a glance

DetailChatGPTDeepSeek
Starting price$8/moFree
Free tier✓Yes✓Yes
MCP server–No–No
Public API✓Yes✓Yes
Listed underAI assistantsAI assistants

Where they pull apart

ChatGPT

Stands out: ChatGPT packs the widest set of everyday tools into one plan: projects, scheduled tasks, custom GPTs, deep research, voice and Office extensions. Most recruiting prompt guides, including the prompt library on this site, are written with it in mind.

Watch out: Personal plans use your chats for training unless you opt out, so keep candidate personal data out of Free, Go and Plus, or move the team to Business, where data is never used for training. It cannot reach LinkedIn or your ATS on its own.

Not the right fit for

  • Finding candidate contact data or LinkedIn profiles
  • Teams handling candidate data on personal accounts instead of a Business workspace

DeepSeek

Stands out: The chat app is completely free with no subscription tier, and the API is among the cheapest published, with off-peak rates at half the peak price.

Watch out: DeepSeek's privacy policy says personal data is collected, processed and stored in the People's Republic of China, and it asks users not to submit sensitive personal data, so keep candidate details out of it. There are no team workspaces, admin controls or business plan.

Not the right fit for

  • Teams that paste candidate personal data into chats
  • Companies that need admin controls, SSO or a signed data agreement

Pros and cons

ChatGPT

  • Free plan with unlimited everyday text chats
  • Projects, scheduled tasks and custom GPTs on paid plans
  • Extensions for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Google Sheets
  • Free and Go plans limit uploads, images and deep research
  • The Go plan may show ads
  • Personal plans can train on your chats unless you opt out

DeepSeek

  • Free chat app with no subscription needed
  • DeepThink reasoning and web search included free
  • Very low API prices with half-price off-peak hours
  • Personal data is stored in China under its privacy policy
  • No team plan, admin controls or business workspace
  • No built-in connections to email, calendar or recruiting tools

What each one costs

ChatGPT

$8/mo

The Free plan costs nothing and includes unlimited everyday text chats, with tighter limits on uploads, images and deep research. Go is $8/mo and may show ads, Plus is $20/mo, and Pro comes in three monthly tiers at $100, $200 and $500. ChatGPT Business costs $20/user/mo billed annually ($25 monthly) for Standard seats and $100/user/mo billed annually for Premium seats, with a two-seat minimum; Enterprise is quoted. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 7 Oct 2026

DeepSeek

Free

The DeepSeek web and mobile chat app is free to use, and no consumer subscription plan is published. The API is pay-as-you-go from a topped-up balance: the deepseek-flash model costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens (cache miss) and $1.20 per 1M output tokens at peak hours, with off-peak rates at half price; deepseek-v4-pro costs $1.32 input and $3.96 output per 1M tokens at peak. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 15 Oct 2026

Common questions

Can you try ChatGPT or DeepSeek for free?
ChatGPT and DeepSeek carry a free tier on our listing.

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Editorial listings, never paid rankings. Prices checked 7 Oct 2026. Confirm current terms on the vendor site. Spot an error?