DeepSeek vs Dola
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
DeepSeek
Free AI chat assistant built on DeepSeek's openly released models
Dola
ByteDance's international AI assistant, formerly called Cici
Where they differ
- DeepSeek is free. Dola starts at £7.49 per month, or £74.99 per year (Dola Plus, UK App Store).
- Only DeepSeek lists macOS and Windows apps.
- DeepSeek is open source, according to its own site.
- DeepSeek also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| DeepSeek | Dola | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | £7.49 per month, or £74.99 per year (Dola Plus, UK App Store) |
| Free plan | The web chat and the iOS and Android apps are free, and the US App Store listing shows no in-app purchases. API usage is billed separately per token. | Basic chat and web search, chat with images and webpages, and a limited number of uses per day of work tools, image and video generation and voice calls. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | DeepSeek | SPRING (SG) PTE. LTD. |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | apps.apple.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
DeepSeek
- Free chat with no subscription tier to outgrow
- Developers who want low per-token API prices
- People who want models whose weights are openly released
Dola
- Everyday writing, summaries and questions on a phone
- Creating and restyling images from a prompt or a photo
- Talking to an assistant by voice instead of typing
Worth knowing
DeepSeek
- There is no paid consumer plan. API access is billed separately, from $0.15 per 1M input tokens off-peak for the deepseek-flash model.
- The desktop download is DeepSeek Harness, a preview agent app for Apple-silicon Macs on macOS 13 or later and 64-bit Windows, not the chat app.
- According to Wikipedia, DeepSeek's compliance with Chinese government censorship policies and its data collection have drawn regulatory scrutiny in several countries.
Dola
- Availability varies by country: dola.com shows a not-available-in-this-region notice in some places, and the US App Store and Google Play do not list the app.
- No US dollar price was found. Prices are set per storefront; the figures here come from the UK App Store, and the terms say fees vary by jurisdiction.
- The Free plan caps work tools, image and video generation and voice calls at a set number of uses a day, and paid plans have limits too; the listing gives no numbers.
- The terms describe the service as provided for private and non-commercial use, and say refunds are granted only at the company's discretion.
Key features
DeepSeek
- DeepThink and Search modes
- Two modes sit beside the chat box on DeepSeek's site: DeepThink, for reasoning through a question, and Search, for answers that draw on the web.
- Visual understanding
- DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, released in September 2026, adds native visual understanding alongside text.
- Free mobile apps
- Official iOS and Android apps give free access to the assistant. The App Store listing covers iPhone and iPad.
- DeepSeek Harness
- A desktop agent app in public preview for organizing files, analyzing data, coding and research. It is MIT-licensed and extended through plugins such as scheduled tasks.
- Openly released models
- Wikipedia describes DeepSeek's models as open-weight and, since January 2025, released under free and open-source licenses. The web and mobile apps are proprietary.
- API platform
- The same models are available to developers through an API billed per token, with off-peak rates set at half the peak rates.
Dola
- Chat with web search
- Basic chat and web search are part of the Free plan, along with chatting about images and webpages you share with the assistant.
- Writing help
- Brainstorms ideas and drafts or polishes emails, social posts, resumes and reports. You can send in a draft to have it made clearer.
- Image generation and photo editing
- Creates images from a prompt or a photo in styles such as cyberpunk and anime, and edits or restyles photos from a plain-language request.
- Voice input and voice calls
- You can speak instead of typing. Voice calls are among the features the Free plan allows a limited number of times each day.
- Summaries and study help
- Summarizes meetings, articles, files and webpages, breaks down complex concepts and works through math questions.
- Fast and Pro modes
- The web app's mode menu lists Fast, which handles most questions, and Pro, an advanced model that requires sign-in. Pro mode use is limited by plan.
Plans
DeepSeek
Free$0
The chat assistant on the web, iOS and Android, running DeepSeek's latest flagship model.
Dola
Free£0
Basic chat and web search, chat with images and webpages, and a limited number of daily uses of work tools, image and video generation and voice calls.
Plus£7.49
per month, or £74.99 per year (UK App Store)
Lowest paid plan. Each paid plan has its own limits for Pro mode, advanced image and video generation, advanced spreadsheet tasks and multimodal research.
Pro£36.99
per month (UK App Store)
Middle paid plan. Its limits for the advanced features are set out on the in-app plan page and are not stated in the store listing.
Max£109.99
per month (UK App Store)
Top paid plan. The listing says the three plans range from everyday work to complex professional tasks but gives no usage limits for Max.
Ways to pay less
DeepSeek
No public discounts listed.
Dola
- Annual discount
About 17% off Plus with annual billing
On the UK App Store, Dola Plus is £74.99 a year against £7.49 a month, about 17% less than twelve monthly payments. The listing shows an annual price only for Plus.
