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DeepSeek R1 — GitHub Models

Free, rate-limited DeepSeek R1 via GitHub Models — authenticate with a GitHub token, no credit card.

Updated 7/2/2026Provider trust 50/1002 code examples

About the Model

DeepSeek R1 is a reasoning model built for math, code, and multi-step problem solving. It is slower than small chat models, but it is the better choice when the answer needs planning or careful verification.

Why choose it?

  • Reasoning-first output: useful for proofs, debugging, and structured problem solving.
  • Multiple free routes: available through GitHub Models and Vercel AI Gateway, with a smaller distilled version on Cloudflare Workers AI.
  • OpenAI-compatible options: easy to swap into existing chat completions clients.

Free access options

  • GitHub Models: free, rate-limited access to DeepSeek R1 with a GitHub token.
  • Vercel AI Gateway: monthly gateway credits for deepseek/deepseek-r1.
  • Cloudflare Workers AI: free daily Neurons for a distilled R1 model, not the full model.

Pick DeepSeek R1 for hard prompts where a small model gives shallow answers. Use GPT-4o mini when speed matters more.

How to Access for Free (via GitHub Models)

GitHub Models offers free, rate-limited access to DeepSeek R1 with a GitHub token. It is the simplest free route if you want full reasoning-model behavior without setting up a separate provider account.

Use this endpoint for math, debugging, and multi-step planning. Reasoning models can be slower than small chat models, so expect longer responses.

Try it in your browser

Pick a model, paste your own free key, and run. Your key is sent once to call the provider and never stored on our servers.

Pick a model, paste your own free key, and run. Your key is sent once to call the provider and never stored on our servers.

Code Examples

curl
curl https://models.github.ai/inference/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"deepseek/DeepSeek-R1","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Explain the Monty Hall problem step by step."}]}'
python
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(base_url="https://models.github.ai/inference", api_key="GITHUB_TOKEN")
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek/DeepSeek-R1",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain the Monty Hall problem step by step."}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)