How to Use OpenClaw with DeepSeek — Low-Cost AI Setup

DeepSeek has shaken up the AI market with seriously capable models at a fraction of the cost of Claude or GPT-4. If you're running OpenClaw on a budget or have lots of high-frequency cron jobs, DeepSeek is worth serious consideration.

Get Your DeepSeek API Key

Sign up at platform.deepseek.com and create an API key. DeepSeek offers generous free credits to start — you can test a full OpenClaw setup without spending anything initially.

Configure OpenClaw for DeepSeek

openclaw config set llm.provider deepseek
openclaw config set llm.apiKey YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY
openclaw config set llm.model deepseek-chat

For the reasoning model (DeepSeek-R1):

openclaw config set llm.model deepseek-reasoner

Restart and verify:

openclaw gateway restart
openclaw gateway status

DeepSeek Model Options

• deepseek-chat (DeepSeek-V3) — Excellent general purpose, incredibly cheap (~$0.27/1M input tokens)
• deepseek-reasoner (DeepSeek-R1) — Reasoning model, great for complex analysis tasks

Running DeepSeek Locally with Ollama

If you want full privacy and zero API costs, run DeepSeek locally via Ollama:

ollama pull deepseek-r1:8b

# Then configure OpenClaw:
openclaw config set llm.provider ollama
openclaw config set llm.model deepseek-r1:8b
openclaw config set llm.baseUrl http://localhost:11434

See the Ollama guide for full local setup instructions.

openclaw.json for DeepSeek API

{
  "llm": {
    "provider": "deepseek",
    "model": "deepseek-chat",
    "apiKey": "YOUR_DEEPSEEK_KEY",
    "baseUrl": "https://api.deepseek.com/v1",
    "temperature": 0.7
  }
}

Best Use Cases for DeepSeek in OpenClaw

DeepSeek shines for: high-frequency monitoring crons, summarization tasks, research and web scraping workflows, and any task where you're doing a lot of calls. For tasks requiring nuanced judgment on business-critical decisions, Claude or GPT-4o may still be preferable.

DeepSeek as a Fallback Provider

openclaw config set llm.fallback.provider deepseek
openclaw config set llm.fallback.apiKey YOUR_DEEPSEEK_KEY
openclaw config set llm.fallback.model deepseek-chat
# Kicks in automatically when primary provider hits rate limits

Want the full OpenClaw setup guide? The OpenClaw Playbook covers everything — $9.99.