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DeepSeek provides high-performance reasoning and chat models. DeepSeek requires you to bring your own key—ngrok-managed keys are not available for DeepSeek.

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Setup

1

Create an AI Gateway endpoint

If you don’t have one yet, follow the quickstart to create your AI Gateway endpoint.
2

Get a DeepSeek API key

Sign up at platform.deepseek.com and create an API key.
3

Make a request

Pass your key directly—the gateway forwards it to DeepSeek.
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://your-ai-gateway.ngrok.app/v1",
    api_key="sk-..."  # Your DeepSeek key, forwarded by gateway
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-chat",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

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Available models

See the model catalog for supported models, including deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner.

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Store key in the gateway

Instead of each client passing their own key, you can store it once in ngrok Secrets and have the gateway inject it automatically.
Storing your provider key in the gateway makes your endpoint publicly accessible. You must add authorization to prevent unauthorized use and unexpected charges. See Protecting BYOK Endpoints.
1

Store your key in ngrok secrets

ngrok api secrets create \
  --name deepseek \
  --secret-data '{"api-key": "sk-..."}'
Or use the Vaults & Secrets dashboard.
2

Configure your traffic policy

on_http_request:
  - type: ai-gateway
    config:
      providers:
        - id: "deepseek"
          api_keys:
            - value: ${secrets.get('deepseek', 'api-key')}
3

Make a request

Clients no longer need a DeepSeek key—pass any value for api_key.
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://your-ai-gateway.ngrok.app/v1",
    api_key="unused"  # Gateway injects your DeepSeek key
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-chat",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

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Next steps