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DeepSeek passes ChatGPT, is now the top free app in the US
Published onJanuary 27, 2025
- China’s DeepSeek AI Assistant app has become the top free app on the Apple App Store in the US.
- The new chatbot beat ChatGPT to become the number one free app in the market.
- The underlying AI model can reportedly compete with OpenAI’s models while requiring a fraction of the training budget.
Chinese AI platform DeepSeek has made waves in recent weeks thanks to the accompanying DeepSeek R1 AI model. Now, it turns out that DeepSeek’s AI Assistant app has become the top free app on the Apple App Store.
The DeepSeek AI Assistant has passed OpenAI’s ChatGPT to become the top free app on the Apple App Store in the US. Check out a screenshot of the chart below. The app is currently listed in 10th place on the Play Store’s free apps chart, but seems to be rising quickly.
The company claims that this open-source model can compete with rival models from OpenAI and Meta while requiring only a fraction of the training budget. More specifically, the company asserts that training the model required just $12 million compared to $500 million for OpenAI’s GPT-5.
Are you interested in DeepSeek's AI model?
What’s also notable is that the team behind DeepSeek reportedly claimed that they used older NVIDIA silicon to train the AI model. This is particularly noteworthy in light of the US barring the export of cutting-edge NVIDIA technology to China. It’s also raised questions about the valuations of companies in the AI space.
Android Authority contributor Dhruv Bhutani recently went hands-on with the DeepSeek AI Assistant and concluded it was an “excellent” alternative to ChatGPT for several reasons. He cited the higher-quality output, the mostly free nature of the platform (at least for now), and the ability to run it locally on your own computer.