Is DeepSeek Banned in the US? What the October 2026 Order Covers

DeepSeek is not banned for ordinary users in the US. A Department of Homeland Security order published on October 20, 2026 makes federal civilian agencies stop buying DeepSeek products and remove DeepSeek technology from their IT systems, but it does not apply to individuals or private companies. Here is what the order says, who it affects, and what DeepSeek costs as of October 22, 2026.

Is DeepSeek banned in the US, and can I still use it?

Every US restriction we found as of October 22, 2026 covers government systems or government devices; none bans individuals or private companies from using DeepSeek.

• The app is still listed. Apple’s US App Store lists DeepSeek - AI Assistant, published by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., as a free app, updated on October 22, 2026. Its Google Play listing shows an update dated October 21, 2026.
• The chat is free. DeepSeek’s web chat and mobile apps have no paid tier; only the developer API is billed per token. Our DeepSeek page tracks the details.
• Your data goes to China. DeepSeek’s privacy policy, last updated February 10, 2026, says “we directly collect, process and store your Personal Data in People’s Republic of China.” The DHS order lists DeepSeek’s China-based servers among its concerns.
• Your employer may say no. Companies can block DeepSeek on work devices, and TechCrunch reported in February 2025 that hundreds already did.

What does the DHS order on DeepSeek require?

The order tells federal civilian agencies to stop buying DeepSeek products and to remove DeepSeek products, including third-party products built with DeepSeek, from agency IT systems.

The Federal Register notice (91 FR 66346, docket DHS-2026-0628) attaches the signed Exclusion and Removal Order #2026-01:

• Issuer: the Secretary of Homeland Security, under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018, after a Federal Acquisition Security Council recommendation.
• Dates: the signed order lists an “Original Release Date” of July 24, 2026; the Federal Register notice ran on October 20, 2026.
• Applies to: federal civilian executive branch agencies, “except for their national security systems and secure compartmented information systems.”
• Exclude: DeepSeek, its affiliates and their products from agency purchasing, effective immediately, including approved product lists and e-commerce markets.
• Remove: DeepSeek and affiliate products, plus “third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations,” from agency IT systems immediately, unless the agency seeks an exception.
• Exceptions: requested in writing within 60 days of the order’s issuance and reviewed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
• Review: the Secretary will review the order within one year and annually after that.

The order says DeepSeek’s servers are in China, that Chinese law gives government cyber and intelligence functions broad access to company infrastructure, that account sign-up collects personal data and may fingerprint users, and that researchers found critical vulnerabilities in the iOS app. China’s Foreign Ministry said it opposes “overstretching the concept of national security,” TechCrunch reported.

Who is affected by the DeepSeek order?

Only federal civilian executive branch agencies are covered directly; vendors are affected when they sell DeepSeek-based products to those agencies.

The order never uses the term “open weights.” A footnote says the purchasing ban includes “third party implementations of DeepSeek used to provide products and services to civilian agencies,” so vendors to those agencies should read the order itself. PromoClock summarizes public documents; this is not legal advice.

Which DeepSeek restrictions came before October 2026?

Government-device restrictions started in January 2025, soon after DeepSeek’s R1 model drew global attention, and a federal law followed in December 2025.

• Federal agencies, January 2025: the Navy, the Pentagon, NASA and the House restricted DeepSeek on their devices or networks, TechCrunch reported.
• Intelligence community, December 18, 2025: Section 6604 of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act directs the Director of National Intelligence to require removal of the DeepSeek app from intelligence-community national security systems, with research and national security exceptions, per the AGORA law tracker.
• Texas, January 31, 2025: Gov. Greg Abbott banned DeepSeek and other China-affiliated AI apps on state-issued devices.
• New York, February 10, 2025: Gov. Kathy Hochul banned DeepSeek on state government-managed devices and networks.
• Virginia, February 11, 2025: Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 46 barred it on state devices and state-run wireless networks, including for contractors.

Abroad, Italy’s data protection authority moved to pull DeepSeek’s apps from Apple and Google stores in Italy in early 2025, and Taiwan barred government agencies from using it. South Korea suspended new downloads from February 15, 2025 until April 28, 2025, when DeepSeek published a revised Korean privacy policy, the Korea Herald reported.

How much does DeepSeek cost now?

The DeepSeek chat app is free. On the API, deepseek-flash costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens off-peak and $0.30 at peak on a cache miss, according to DeepSeek’s pricing page.

• deepseek-flash now runs DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017. The legacy names deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp still work, but requests go to V4.1-Flash at the Flash price.
• deepseek-v4-pro runs DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813. Both models have a 1M-token context; only deepseek-flash accepts images.
• Example: 10M uncached input tokens plus 2M output tokens on deepseek-flash cost $5.40 at peak and $2.70 off-peak.

On October 22, 2026, Bloomberg reported that DeepSeek raised about $15 billion, roughly 100 billion yuan, with CATL and Tencent among potential investors, according to TechCrunch. The report says nothing about pricing.

When are DeepSeek’s peak and off-peak hours?

DeepSeek’s API peak hours are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, Monday through Friday. Every other hour is off-peak at half the peak price, including weekends and Chinese public holidays in full.

• US users: 09:00–17:00 local time is off-peak in every mainland US time zone.
• India and China: peak covers weekday mornings and early afternoons, so evening and weekend jobs cost half.
• Clock changes: US daylight saving time ends on November 1, 2026, moving both US windows one hour earlier on local clocks.

DeepSeek’s windows change the price, not a usage limit. Claude’s peak hours work the other way: the price stays the same, and session limits drain faster.

What changes on November 1 for Claude Code and Codex users?

From 00:00 Beijing time on November 1, 2026 (16:00 UTC on Saturday, October 31), DeepSeek starts billing the web search and page-fetch calls that Claude Code, Codex and DeepSeek Harness make through its API.

DeepSeek’s API accepts the Anthropic format at api.deepseek.com/anthropic and the OpenAI format at api.deepseek.com, which is how those agents run on DeepSeek models. DeepSeek’s Search & Fetch guide says their server-side tool calls already hit its Search and Fetch APIs for free until the switch.

• Price: Search and Fetch each cost $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests, with no separate peak rate listed.
• What counts: only requests that return results; failed requests, empty searches and timeouts are free.
• Who pays: fees come out of your DeepSeek balance, on top of token charges.
• Example: a session with 400 searches and 200 fetches adds $0.45.

The switch lands at 12:00 EDT, 09:00 PDT and 21:30 IST on October 31. For other agents, see our AI coding tools guide.

What are the alternatives to DeepSeek?

If DeepSeek is off-limits at work, Kimi, Qwen and Mistral offer free chat plans, and ChatGPT and Claude are US-based options.

• Kimi from Moonshot AI has a free plan and runs Kimi K3, an open-weight model with a 1M-token context launched in July 2026.
• Qwen Studio, formerly Qwen Chat, is Alibaba’s assistant; it has no paid consumer plan.
• Mistral Vibe, formerly Le Chat, comes from French lab Mistral AI; Pro costs $14.99/month.

The DHS order names only DeepSeek and its affiliates, but Kimi and Qwen also come from Chinese companies; TechCrunch reports that a September 2026 US government report accused Alibaba and Moonshot AI, along with DeepSeek, of large-scale model distillation. For US options, compare ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini, see the best free AI tools, or browse the 100 tools we track.

Bottom line

No US rule we found stops ordinary users from using DeepSeek; the October 2026 order covers federal civilian agencies’ systems and purchases.

• Individual users: nothing changed legally, but DeepSeek stores personal data in China.
• Federal civilian staff and vendors: DeepSeek and products built with it must leave agency IT systems unless an agency gets an exception.
• State employees in Texas, New York and Virginia: 2025 state orders already bar DeepSeek on state devices.
• Developers: run batch jobs off-peak for half price, and budget for Search and Fetch charges from November 1, 2026.
• Teams that need a non-China vendor: start with Mistral, ChatGPT or Claude.