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DeepSeek for Business: What to Know Before You Use It at Work
DeepSeek’s chat app is free and its API is inexpensive, but DeepSeek’s own policies say data is stored in China and governed by Chinese law, and several governments have restricted it on official devices. For business use, keep confidential information out of the app, or run DeepSeek’s open-weight models on your own computer, where nothing leaves your machine.
DeepSeek gets attention for two reasons: it’s capable and it’s cheap. The chat app costs nothing, the API’s prices are halved outside peak hours, and its open-weight models can run on your own hardware. Before you use it for work, though, there’s one question to answer first: where does your data go?
What DeepSeek’s own policies say
DeepSeek’s privacy policy says the information it collects is stored on servers in China and governed by Chinese law. That’s not speculation; it’s in DeepSeek’s own documents. For personal questions that may be fine. For customer data, contracts or anything covered by your industry’s rules, it’s a decision to make deliberately.
Guide: use DeepSeek safely at work
What governments have done
Several governments have restricted DeepSeek on official systems. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security published an order in the Federal Register on October 20, 2026 on excluding and removing DeepSeek products from federal civilian systems. Australia directed government agencies to remove it in February 2025, and Italy’s data protection authority acted against the app in January 2025. These apply to government systems, not to private businesses, but they tell you how seriously regulators take the question.
Three safer ways to use it
1. Keep confidential data out of the chat app
Use the app for public information and general questions. Don’t paste customer records, financials or anything under a confidentiality agreement. Check its data settings too.
Guide: keep your data private in DeepSeek
2. Run it on your own computer
DeepSeek publishes open-weight models. Run a distilled DeepSeek-R1 model with Ollama or LM Studio and your prompts never leave your machine. Smaller models need less memory but are less capable.
Guides: run DeepSeek locally, with Ollama or in LM Studio
3. Read the license before you build on it
If you’re putting a DeepSeek model into a product, read the license on the model’s own page first.
Guide: understand the DeepSeek open-weight license
Where it shines
With DeepThink on, DeepSeek works through problems step by step, which suits math, logic and debugging. Its API is cheapest outside peak hours.
Guides: use DeepThink, solve math problems and cut your API costs
Start here
New to DeepSeek? Begin with the beginner’s guide, and if you see “server is busy”, here’s what to do. All 20 guides are on the DeepSeek how-to page.