DeepSeek Opens In-House Search API to Developers for Real-Time Web Retrieval

On October 17, 2026, DeepSeek announced in its API update log that it is opening its in-house search engine to external developers. Previously serving only DeepSeek's own web interface and chat API, the search capability is now available as independent "Search" and "Fetch" tools.

According to official documentation, the DeepSeek search engine is an AI-native general-purpose search engine that indexes hundreds of billions of web pages globally, supports multilingual search, and returns highly relevant and authoritative results in real time. It employs strict detection mechanisms to filter out SEO spam, GEO manipulation, and low-quality AIGC content, ensuring trustworthy information for users and LLMs.

The release includes two main interfaces: the Search API finds web pages for a query and returns structured results, while the Fetch API grabs a single page and returns it as Markdown. This allows developers building AI agents or Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems requiring live web data to use DeepSeek's native search directly, without integrating third-party search providers.

Media reports indicate pricing at $0.75 per 1,000 calls for each endpoint, billed per successful request. Failed requests, empty results, and timeouts are not billed. Server-side tool calls made through platforms like DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code, or Codex are free until billing starts on November 1, 2026.