Where to Run DeepSeek-R1-0528: Cloud APIs, Local Builds and GPU Rentals Compared

DeepSeek-R1-0528 is an open-source reasoning model that competes with proprietary systems like OpenAI's o1 and Google Gemini 2.5 Pro. Below is a practical guide to where you can run the model, what each provider offers, cost and performance trade-offs, and how to choose the best option for your use case.

Cloud & API Providers

DeepSeek Official API

The official API is the most cost-effective choice for high-volume, cost-sensitive workloads. It supports a 64K context length and native reasoning features, with off-peak discounts that can reduce costs during specified hours.

Pricing: $0.55 per 1M input tokens, $2.19 per 1M output tokens
Features: 64K context, native reasoning
Best for: Cost-sensitive applications and large-scale usage

Amazon Bedrock (AWS)

Amazon Bedrock offers a fully managed, serverless deployment of DeepSeek-R1 with enterprise security and integration into AWS guardrails.

Availability: Managed serverless deployment
Regions: US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon)
Features: Enterprise security, Bedrock Guardrails
Best for: Enterprises and regulated industries requiring AWS integration

Together AI

Together AI provides performance-optimized endpoints and dedicated reasoning clusters for production workloads.

Pricing variants: DeepSeek-R1 at $3.00 input / $7.00 output per 1M tokens; Throughput tier at $0.55 input / $2.19 output per 1M tokens
Features: Serverless endpoints, dedicated clusters
Best for: Production applications that need consistent performance guarantees

Novita AI

Novita AI is a competitive cloud option that also offers GPU rental for A100/H100/H200 instances.

Pricing: $0.70 per 1M input tokens, $2.50 per 1M output tokens
Features: OpenAI-compatible API, multi-language SDKs, hourly GPU rental
Best for: Developers who want flexible deployment and GPU access

Fireworks AI

Fireworks AI focuses on premium, low-latency performance and enterprise support. Pricing is higher and available on request.

Features: Fast inference, enterprise support
Best for: Use cases where latency is critical

Other Notable Providers

Nebius AI Studio, Parasail, Microsoft Azure (preview in some regions), Hyperbolic (FP8 quantization), and DeepInfra all list DeepSeek access or competitive performance options. Availability and pricing vary; check each provider for current details.

GPU Rental & Infrastructure Providers

Novita AI GPU Instances

Novita rents GPU instances including A100, H100, and H200 with hourly billing and setup guides, making it suitable for flexible, high-performance workloads.

Hardware: A100, H100, H200
Pricing: Hourly (contact provider)
Features: Scalable instances, setup documentation

Amazon SageMaker

SageMaker is an option for AWS-native deployments, but DeepSeek requires substantial instance types for efficient inference.

Minimum recommended: ml.p5e.48xlarge instances
Features: Custom model import, enterprise integration
Best for: Organizations that need deep AWS integration and custom orchestration

Local & Open-Source Deployment

Hugging Face Hub

Model weights are available on Hugging Face under an MIT license, usually in safetensors format, ready for local deployment with transformers and pipeline tools.

Access: Free model weights
License: MIT (commercial use allowed)
Tools: Transformers, pipeline support

Local Deployment Options

Several frameworks support local inference for DeepSeek-R1-0528:

Ollama: Developer-friendly local LLM framework
vLLM: High-performance inference server for scale
Unsloth: Tuned for lower-resource deployments
Open Web UI: User-friendly local interface for testing

Hardware Requirements

Running the full model requires substantial GPU memory (671B parameters, 37B active). The distilled option is designed for consumer hardware.

Full model: Very large GPU memory requirements
Distilled version (Qwen3-8B): Runs on consumer GPUs like RTX 4090 or RTX 3090 (24GB VRAM)
Minimum for quantized variants: ~20GB RAM

Pricing Comparison and Trade-offs

A quick comparison highlights cost versus performance:

DeepSeek Official: Lowest cost ($0.55/$2.19) but may have higher latency
Together AI (Throughput): Matches official pricing for throughput-oriented tiers
Together AI (Standard): Higher cost ($3/$7) for premium latency
Novita AI: Mid-range cost with GPU rental options
AWS Bedrock: Enterprise-grade, contact for pricing
Hugging Face: Free for local use but requires hardware investment

Local deployments remove per-token costs but require upfront hardware and operational work. Premium providers can be 2–4x more expensive but deliver sub-5s response times.

Performance and Regional Availability

Consider latency and region support when choosing a provider. Some services (like AWS Bedrock) are limited to specific regions, so check provider documentation for the latest availability.

DeepSeek-R1-0528 Improvements

Enhanced Reasoning

The model shows major leaps in benchmarking accuracy:

AIME 2025: 87.5% accuracy
HMMT 2025: 79.4% accuracy
Increased depth: average 23K tokens per question versus 12K previously

New Features

System prompt support, JSON output, function calling, reduced hallucinations, and no manual activation for chain-of-thought make the model easier to integrate into production systems.

Distilled Option

DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B is an 8B parameter distilled version that runs on consumer hardware while retaining strong performance, ideal for resource-constrained deployments.

Choosing the Right Provider

Startups & small projects: DeepSeek Official API for lowest cost and decent performance
Production apps: Together AI or Novita AI for performance guarantees and support
Enterprise & regulated industries: Amazon Bedrock for security and compliance
Local development: Hugging Face + Ollama for full control and zero per-token fees

Verify current pricing and regional availability with providers before committing, since the ecosystem evolves rapidly.