AI Launch Profile
DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model
DeepSeek released DeepSeek-R1 and DeepSeek-R1-Zero, open reasoning models with distilled variants based on Qwen and Llama models.
At a glance
Launch Snapshot
- Company
- DeepSeek
- Launch date
- January 20, 2025
- Launch type
- Open-Source Release
- Category
- AI Open-Weight Models, AI Research Tools
- Audience
- Developers, Enterprises, Researchers, Students
- Pricing
- MIT-licensed repository and model weights; usage costs depend on self-hosting, inference provider, or DeepSeek platform/API access.
- Free plan
- Yes
- API
- Yes
- Open weights/source
- Yes
Launch Context
Use these links to move from this record into the broader Launch Intelligence database.
Verification & Sources
- Status
- Verified
- Source links
- 3
- Freshness
- Needs recheck: verified June 8, 2026
- Last verified
- June 8, 2026
- Last updated
- July 11, 2026
Key source checks
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Kingy Launch Score
7.5 / 10 · Solid
One earned credibility score, computed from cited evidence — not a placeholder. How the Kingy Launch Score works
Why this score
- Source & verification 7.5/10 — The Hugging Face model page, the GitHub repository, and the DeepSeek arXiv paper — three sources. huggingface.co
- Product evidence 8.0/10 — Open reasoning models (R1 and R1-Zero) with distilled variants, an MIT-licensed repository, and downloadable weights. github.com
- Significance & novelty 7.5/10 — The record frames it as one of the most consequential AI model launches of 2025, drawing massive market, developer, and policy attention. huggingface.co
- Traction signals not scored — insufficient sourced evidence
- Offer clarity 6.5/10 — MIT-licensed repo and weights; cost depends on self-hosting, an inference provider, or DeepSeek platform access. huggingface.co
Evidence checked 2026-07-11
Creator Coverage Next Steps
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Kingy AI Take
DeepSeek released DeepSeek-R1 and R1-Zero, open reasoning models with distilled variants based on Qwen and Llama, under an MIT-licensed repository (github.com). By the record's account this was one of the most consequential launches of 2025 for open reasoning and cost, giving developers and researchers inspectable open weights. Deployment trust, safety behavior, and evaluation reproducibility remain real concerns, so validate on your own tasks before production reliance.
Who it is for
Researchers, developers, model hosts, and teams evaluating open reasoning models for coding, math, and analysis.
Traction notes
One of the most consequential AI model launches of 2025, with massive market, developer, and policy attention.
Source-backed record