# DeepSeek API vs Jais 3

> Jais 3 scores 51.7 (D) to DeepSeek's 45.8 (E) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-jais-3
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-jais-3.md (~3,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-jais-3.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-jais-3.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Jais 3 scores 51.7 (D) on agent readiness against DeepSeek API's 45.8 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek API leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do llm inference.

- DeepSeek API: grade E, 45.8/100, rank #974 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-api.json
- Jais 3: grade D, 51.7/100, rank #839 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jais-3.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jais-3.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 326 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### DeepSeek API (E)

Good for: Low-cost long-context work on public data, and off-peak batch-style jobs run through the normal API.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 48
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 65
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 50

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: 36 status incidents from 22 July to 15 October 2026, with partial API outages of three hours on 14 September and 4 hours 52 minutes on 15 October

### Jais 3 (D)

Good for: An agent or team that needs Arabic and English reasoning and tool use on its own hardware, from a laptop-sized 0.9B to a cluster-sized 375B, under Apache-2.0.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 54 against 49
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 62 against 46

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.5 against 2.0 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where DeepSeek API loses 3 points for them

Watch for: Every documented vLLM, SGLang, Transformers and MLX command passes `--trust-remote-code`, so the repository's Python runs on the host


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepSeek API | Jais 3 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 48 | DeepSeek API +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 54 | Jais 3 +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 65 | DeepSeek API +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 30 | 31 | Jais 3 +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | Jais 3 +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 62 | Jais 3 +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 50 | DeepSeek API +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.8 · E** | **51.7 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepSeek API | Jais 3 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Institute of Foundation Models (MBZUAI) and Inception42 |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.deepseek.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0, declared in the metadata of every model card read. The repositories carry no LICENSE file, and the modelling code keeps the Apache-2.0 header of the Qwen3-MoE code it was generated from |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read |  |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**DeepSeek API.** Accepts the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic request formats at per-token prices that halve off-peak. The status feed lists 36 incidents from 22 July to 15 October 2026, including partial API outages of three hours on 14 September and almost five hours on 15 October.

**Jais 3.** Jais 3 runs on the owner's hardware through OpenAI-compatible servers in vLLM and SGLang, with tool calls, three reasoning levels and a 512K context, from a 2.2 GB 0.9B model to a 758 GB 375B one. The weights download without sign-up under Apache-2.0, but every launch command trusts remote code, and no technical report or security contact is published.

## Before you call either

### DeepSeek API

1. Send only data you'd be happy to publish
2. Schedule bulk work off-peak for half price. Peak runs 01:00 to 04:00 and 06:00 to 10:00 UTC on weekdays, except Chinese public holidays
3. Set `max_tokens` yourself. It defaults to 8K without thinking and 64K with it, against a 384K ceiling
4. For schema-checked tool arguments use base URL `https://api.deepseek.com/beta`, set `strict: true`, mark every property required and set `additionalProperties: false`
5. Keep a fallback provider and re-run evals after model changes. 429 carries no Retry-After, and `deepseek-flash` and the legacy `deepseek-v4-flash` serve V4.1-Flash-1017 since 17 October 2026

### Jais 3

1. Start vLLM or SGLang with `--reasoning-parser k2_horizon`, and add `--tool-call-parser k2_horizon` (vLLM also `--enable-auto-tool-choice`) for tools, or tool calls come back as raw text
2. Pass `reasoning_effort` (`high`, `medium` or `low`) and `tool_call_format` inside `chat_template_kwargs`. Other values return a template error
3. Send each earlier assistant turn back with `reasoning_content` as a string, even an empty one. A missing or null thinking field makes the template raise an error
4. Send your own system message, or set `default_system_prompt` to an empty string. Without one the template inserts an identity prompt naming IFM, Inception42 and Cerebras
5. Budget at least 32,768 output tokens at `high` effort, which the cards recommend for every request

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek API or Jais 3?

Jais 3 scores 51.7 (D) on agent readiness against DeepSeek API's 45.8 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek API leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

### Do DeepSeek API and Jais 3 need an API key?

DeepSeek API needs an API key. Jais 3 needs no key.

### Can an agent call DeepSeek API and Jais 3 without installing anything?

DeepSeek API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.deepseek.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for Jais 3.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-jais-3.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-jais-3.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "deepseek-api", "b": "jais-3"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare deepseek-api jais-3`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-api.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jais-3.json

## Other comparisons with DeepSeek API or Jais 3

- [Claude API vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Claude API vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Antseed vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Antseed vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-jais-3.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-jais-3.md)
- [DeepInfra vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-jais-3.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Glimpse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-elorian-glimpse.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Gemini Developer API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-gemini-api.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-groq.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Meta Model API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-meta-model-api.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Mistral AI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-mistral-api.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Muse Spark Open](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-muse-spark-open.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Novita AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-novita-ai.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs OpenAI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-openai-api.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-openrouter.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-sambanova.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Glimpse vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-jais-3.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Meta Model API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-meta-model-api.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Mistral AI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-mistral-api.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Muse Spark Open](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-muse-spark-open.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Novita AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-novita-ai.md)
- [Jais 3 vs OpenAI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-openai-api.md)
- [Jais 3 vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Jais 3 vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Jais 3 vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Jais 3 vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [Jais 3 vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp