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DeepSeekGovernment & municipalities

DeepSeek for government & municipalities

Open-weight (MIT) Chinese language model with a 1M context window and a built-in reasoning mode, at very low API costs.

Not specifically recommended

DeepSeek is not on our list for government & municipalities. Usable for general work, but first look at the options we recommend for government & municipalities.

GDPR profileOur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data: EU hosting possible, no training on your data for business use, and self-hosting available. Caution applies to a model with a documented problem, such as an investigation by a regulator. How we measure
GDPR: Caution
QualityQuality from blind duels on LMArena: users choose between two anonymous answers. A difference of about 20 points is noticeable, a few points is noise. How we measure
1475Elo, independent
Editorial scoreOur own assessment on 10 of suitability for professional work, price and privacy. This is a judgement, not a measurement; that is why it always sits alongside the Elo. How we measure
7,4
Entry price
Free
Full GDPR check

What DeepSeek does in government & municipalities

Core tasks in government & municipalities
  • Drafting letters and decisions in plain language
  • Searching and redacting files and dossiers for Freedom of Information requests
  • Summarising council and policy documents
  • Answering citizen questions via channels
Where DeepSeek is strong
  • Very low API costs
  • Open weights (MIT), self-hostable
  • Strong at reasoning, maths and code
  • Large context window (1M tokens)

DeepSeek has a concrete GDPR concern. The DeepSeek service stores personal data in China and was blocked by the Italian regulator in January 2025. Not advisable for regulated sectors unless you host the model yourself within the EU. Weigh this heavily before deploying it in government & municipalities.

Confidentiality and GDPR

GDPR: Caution

Governments fall under stricter rules (GDPR, Open Government Act, EU AI Act, archiving law) and algorithm registers. Choose demonstrably EU-hosted or on-premise solutions and register AI use.

The DeepSeek service stores data in China and uses it for training by default (with an opt-out). Only an EU self-hosted variant of the open weights is defensible for sensitive data.

Rule of thumb Use the business variant with a data processing agreement, and keep a human in the loop for decisions that matter.
Caution the DeepSeek service stores personal data in China and was blocked in January 2025 by the Italian regulator. Advised against for regulated sectors, unless you host the model yourself within the EU.

Prices

Chat / appFreeOn chat.deepseek.com
Self-hostingFreeOpen weights, your own compute costs
API (V4.1-Flash)$0.15 / 1M in$0.60 / 1M out (off-peak rate); peak hours (Mon–Fri 01–04 and 06–10 UTC) at double the price; cache-hit input $0.003 per 1M
API (V4-Pro)$0.66 / 1M in$1.98 / 1M out (off-peak rate); peak hours at double the price; cache-hit input $0.022 per 1M

Questions about DeepSeek for government & municipalities

Is DeepSeek suitable for government & municipalities?
Not specifically. DeepSeek is not on our list for government & municipalities; it is broadly usable, but first look at the options we recommend for government & municipalities. Keep a professional in the loop for every use.
May I put confidential data into DeepSeek?
Governments fall under stricter rules (GDPR, Woo, the EU AI Act, archiving law) and algorithm registers. Choose demonstrably EU-hosted or on-premise solutions and register your AI use. The DeepSeek service stores data in China and uses it for training by default (with opt-out). Only a self-hosted EU variant of the open weights is defensible for sensitive data.
What does DeepSeek cost?
There is Chat / app (Free), Self-hosted (Free), API (V4.1-Flash) ($0.15 / 1M in), API (V4-Pro) ($0.66 / 1M in). Check current prices on the official site.

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