DeepSeek Made Crystal Clear · chapter 2: The Four Faces of DeepSeek
The same prompt, four paths
2026-09-17
What differs is who holds the prompt, what it costs, and which content policy governs the reply, not necessarily which model answered.
Below: the paragraphs from the book that build this idea, then the diagram itself (Figure 2.2), and a recap. About a minute of reading.
Every recipe in the chapters ahead states, explicitly, which of these four faces it uses. That is not decoration. The four faces are not interchangeable, and a recipe written for Face 2 (the hosted API) can carry privacy implications that do not apply if you rebuild the same recipe on Face 4 (self-hosted).
Imagine sending the exact same request, "summarize this internal document," through all four faces. The model family answering it can be the same. What changes is everything around it.
Recap
- The idea: What differs is who holds the prompt, what it costs, and which content policy governs the reply, not necessarily which model answered.
- The picture: Figure 2.2, from chapter 2 ("The Four Faces of DeepSeek") of DeepSeek Made Crystal Clear.
- Go deeper: the chapter builds this step by step, with recipes and sources at the end.
This diagram is one of many in DeepSeek Made Crystal Clear.
Every chapter opens with the gist, draws the hard ideas, and ends with recipes and sources.
Get the book
