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Consensus vs DeepSeek

Features, pricing, ratings, and pros and cons, side by side.

Verdict

Consensus is listed under Education & Research and DeepSeek under AI Assistants. DeepSeek scores higher in FinderAtlas's editorial review (8.8 vs 8.0 out of 10). Both have a free plan or trial. Only DeepSeek is available on Windows, macOS and iOS and offers an API.

Best overall

DeepSeek

  • Software developers
  • Researchers and analysts
  • Students
  • AI engineers

Choose Consensus if

  • You want a tool built for quick literature scans, finding citable peer-reviewed sources, checking what the evidence says on a yes/no question.
  • Every answer links back to cited peer-reviewed papers.
  • Consensus Meter gives a quick view of agreement on yes/no questions.

Choose DeepSeek if

  • You want a tool built for Low-cost API integration.
  • Web chat and mobile apps are free.
  • API output costs from $0.60 per 1M tokens (Flash, off-peak), well below most frontier providers.
Best for beginners
Consensus
Best for business
Consensus

Features

17 features compared.

  • Pro Search and Deep Search
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • Consensus Meter
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • Study Snapshots
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • Ask Paper
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • Threads
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • Medical Mode
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • Citation Graph
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • Citation Export and Collections
    Consensus
    Available
    DeepSeek
    Not available
  • V4 model family
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • Thinking mode
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • Open weights
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • OpenAI and Anthropic compatible API
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • Tool calls and JSON output
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • Search and Fetch APIs
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • Agent tool integrations
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • DeepSeek Harness
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available
  • Vision on Flash
    Consensus
    Not available
    DeepSeek
    Available

Pricing

Plans as listed by each vendor. Check their sites for current prices.

  • Pricing model
    Consensus
    Freemium
    DeepSeek
    Freemium
  • Free plan
    Consensus
    Yes
    DeepSeek
    Yes
  • Starting price
    Consensus
    $0
    DeepSeek
    $0
  • Plans
    Consensus
    4 plans
    DeepSeek
    3 plans

Consensus plans

  • Free

    $0

    Basic paper search for free, without AI analysis

    • Basic paper search
    • 10 Pro messages per month
    • Up to 3 Deep reviews per month

  • Pro

    Most popular

    $20/month

    Unlimited Pro messages with cited AI analysis of peer-reviewed research

    • Unlimited Pro messages
    • 15 Deep reviews per month
    • All research tools
    • 500 API and MCP uses per month

  • Deep

    $65/month

    For researchers and clinicians doing frequent literature reviews

    • Everything in Pro
    • 200 Deep reviews per month
    • 2000 API and MCP uses per month

  • Team and Enterprise

    Custom/custom

    Plans for organizations, universities and research teams

    • Multi-seat access
    • Contact sales for details

DeepSeek plans

  • Chat and App

    Most popular

    $0

    Free access to DeepSeek models on web, iOS and Android

    • Web chat
    • iOS and Android apps
    • Thinking mode
    • Web search
    • File upload

  • API: deepseek-flash

    $0.15/1M input tokens

    Pay as you go; $0.15 cache-miss input and $0.60 output per 1M tokens off-peak, double at peak

    • 1M context
    • 384K max output
    • Vision
    • Tool calls
    • JSON output

  • API: deepseek-v4-pro

    $0.66/1M input tokens

    Pay as you go; $0.66 cache-miss input and $1.98 output per 1M tokens off-peak, double at peak

    • 1M context
    • 384K max output
    • Tool calls
    • JSON output

Our ratings

Scored out of 10 by the Finder Atlas editorial team. Last reviewed October 2026.

Consensus
8.0overall
DeepSeek
8.8overall

Consensus leads in 1 category and DeepSeek in 0.

  • Ease of Use

    Consensus leads by 0.8
    Consensus
    8.8
    DeepSeek
    8.0

  • Feature Depth

    Consensus
    8.2
    DeepSeek
    Not rated

  • Value for Money

    Consensus
    7.5
    DeepSeek
    Not rated

  • Performance & Speed

    Consensus
    8.3
    DeepSeek
    Not rated

  • Documentation & Support

    Consensus
    7.2
    DeepSeek
    Not rated

  • Reasoning & Logic

    Consensus
    Not rated
    DeepSeek
    8.8

  • Coding & Syntax

    Consensus
    Not rated
    DeepSeek
    8.7

  • Cost Efficiency

    Consensus
    Not rated
    DeepSeek
    9.6

  • Long Context

    Consensus
    Not rated
    DeepSeek
    8.8

Scores weigh documented features, plan value, platform coverage, integrations and user feedback. A missing score means we have not rated that area yet.

Pros and cons

Consensus

Pros

  • Every answer links back to cited peer-reviewed papers
  • Consensus Meter gives a quick view of agreement on yes/no questions
  • Export to RIS, BibTeX and CSV fits existing reference workflows
  • Medical Mode narrows results to top medical journals and clinical guidelines
  • Free search available without payment
  • Stated use by students at over 10,000 universities (company claim)

Cons

  • Deep reviews are capped (3/month free, 15 on Pro), so heavy literature reviews need the $65 Deep plan
  • Corpus size claims differ across the company's own pages (200M+ vs 400M+)
  • Focused on academic literature, so it is not a general-purpose assistant

DeepSeek

Pros

  • Web chat and mobile apps are free
  • API output costs from $0.60 per 1M tokens (Flash, off-peak), well below most frontier providers
  • Open weights for V4 and earlier models on Hugging Face
  • 1M-token context and 384K max output on both API models
  • API works with both OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs and several coding agents

Cons

  • Peak-hour API rates are double the off-peak rates on weekday mornings UTC
  • deepseek-v4-pro does not support vision input
  • No image generation
  • Data is processed by a company based in China, which some organizations cannot accept

Platforms

  • Web
    Consensus
    Supported
    DeepSeek
    Supported
  • Windows
    Consensus
    Not supported
    DeepSeek
    Supported
  • macOS
    Consensus
    Not supported
    DeepSeek
    Supported
  • iOS
    Consensus
    Not supported
    DeepSeek
    Supported
  • Android
    Consensus
    Supported
    DeepSeek
    Supported
  • API
    Consensus
    Not supported
    DeepSeek
    Supported
  • Browser Extension
    Consensus
    Not supported
    DeepSeek
    Not supported

Integrations

Consensus

No integrations listed.

DeepSeek

6 integrations
  • OpenAI SDK
  • Anthropic SDK
  • Claude Code
  • Codex
  • OpenCode
  • Hugging Face

Company

  • Company
    Consensus
    Consensus NLP, Inc.
    DeepSeek
    DeepSeek
  • Founded
    Consensus
    Not listed
    DeepSeek
    2023
  • Headquarters
    Consensus
    Boston, USA
    DeepSeek
    Hangzhou, China
  • Listing
    Consensus
    Claimed
    DeepSeek
    Claimed

Frequently asked questions

Is Consensus better than DeepSeek?

It depends on your workflow. Consensus is built for quick literature scans, finding citable peer-reviewed sources, checking what the evidence says on a yes/no question. DeepSeek is built for Low-cost API integration.

What are the key feature differences between Consensus and DeepSeek?

Consensus: Search peer-reviewed research and get cited, evidence-based answers in seconds. DeepSeek: Free AI chat app and low-cost API running DeepSeek's open-weights V4 models.

Does Consensus or DeepSeek have a free plan?

Yes, both do. Consensus is freemium and DeepSeek is freemium, and each has a free plan or trial.

Which is cheaper, Consensus or DeepSeek?

Both can be used for free. Paid plans differ in limits and features, so compare the tiers in the pricing table above.