DeepSeek opens search engine API, filters GEO manipulation

DeepSeek opened its previously internal-only search engine to developers on October 17, 2026, per its own API documentation: a Search API returning indexed pages with metadata, and a Fetch API returning a single page as Markdown, both priced at $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests (failed or empty requests aren’t billed). Calls routed through Claude Code, Codex or DeepSeek Harness are free until November 1. Each result carries a 0-4 “authority” field — 3 or above is “highly authoritative,” -1 is unknown — and DeepSeek says the engine, which it describes as indexing “hundreds of billions” of pages, filters “SEO spam, GEO manipulation, and low-quality AIGC through strict detection mechanisms.” DeepSeek’s documentation does not explain how pages are assigned a tier or how the manipulation detection works.