Does DeepSeek V3.2 support tool calling?

No. The Thinking variant is a pure reasoning engine without tool-use support. For tool calls alongside reasoning, use the standard DeepSeek-V3.2 model.

What is the maximum output token budget for DeepSeek V3.2?

Up to 65.5K tokens per response, compared to 8K for the standard V3.2 chat variant.

When would I use DeepSeek V3.2 over DeepSeek-R1?

Choose DeepSeek V3.2 for the V3.2 stack and reasoning output up to 65.5K tokens. DeepSeek-R1 is MIT-licensed. If license terms matter for your deployment, confirm the license for the model you pick.

Why does the output token budget matter for reasoning models?

Reasoning models generate a chain-of-thought trace before the final answer. Complex problems can require thousands of reasoning tokens. A budget of 65.5K tokens provides headroom for multi-step derivations that would exceed an 8K limit.

How do I access DeepSeek V3.2 through AI Gateway?

Use the model ID `deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking` with an AI Gateway API key or OIDC token. No separate DeepSeek platform account is required.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2 is the extended reasoning variant of DeepSeek-V3.2. Available on AI Gateway since December 1, 2025, it generates up to 65.5K tokens of chain-of-thought reasoning for complex analytical, scientific, and multi-step problem-solving tasks.

View API reference

Input and output price: Prices from: Input $0.26, Output $0.38, Per 1M tokens
24h uptime: Loading AI Gateway uptime

Get API key Read the docs

import { streamText } from 'ai'

const result = streamText({
  model: 'deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking',
  prompt: 'Why is the sky blue?'
})

Read docs

Overview Playground Providers Uptime Status Throughput Latency API Similar About FAQ

Copy link to headingPlayground

Try out DeepSeek V3.2 by DeepSeek. Usage is billed to your team at API rates. Free users (those who haven't made a payment) get $5 of credits every 30 days.

DeepSeek V3.2

Copy link to headingProviders

Route requests across multiple providers. Copy a provider slug to set your preference. Visit the docs for more info. Using a provider means you agree to their terms, listed under Legal.

Provider

Context	Max Output	Latency	Throughput	Input	Output	Cache	Web Search	Capabilities	ZDR	No Training	Free Tier	Release Date

Novita AI

Legal:Terms•Privacy

164K

66K

2.1 s

34 tps

$0.28/M

$0.42/M

Read$0.13/M

—

12/01/2025

Bedrock

Legal:Terms•Privacy

128K

0.2 s

94 tps

$0.62/M

$1.85/M

—

12/01/2025

DeepInfra

Legal:Terms•Privacy

164K

0.6 s

$0.26/M

$0.38/M

Read$0.13/M

—

12/01/2025

Getting started

Call DeepSeek V3.2 through AI Gateway with the AI SDK generateText and streamText functions, or through the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses, and Anthropic Messages APIs by changing the base URL. AI Gateway authenticates the request and routes it to an available provider.

Install the AI SDK (pnpm add ai dotenv), create an API key from the API Keys page, and set it as AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY in your environment. Full setup is covered in the text generation quickstart.

index.ts

import { generateText } from 'ai';
import 'dotenv/config';

async function main() {
  const result = await generateText({
    model: 'deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking',
    prompt: 'Why is the sky blue?',
  });

  console.log(result.text);
}

main().catch(console.error);

Top-level parameters

The same DeepSeek V3.2 request in each API format AI Gateway supports.

top-level-params.ts

import { generateText } from 'ai';
import 'dotenv/config';

async function main() {
  const result = await generateText({
    model: 'deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking',
    system: 'You are a concise technical assistant.',
    prompt: 'Summarize the tradeoffs between static generation and SSR.',
    maxOutputTokens: 1024,
  });

  console.log(result.text);
}

main().catch(console.error);

Standard parameters like prompt, messages, temperature, and tools work as documented in the AI SDK docs. These are the parameters with model-specific behavior.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`model`	`string`	Yes	Model ID in the form `creator/model`, e.g. `deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking`. AI Gateway routes the request to an available provider.
`maxOutputTokens`	`number`	No	Hard cap on generated tokens. DeepSeek V3.2 supports up to `65,536` output tokens. Reasoning tokens count toward this limit.
`reasoning`	`'provider-default' \| 'none' \| 'minimal' \| 'low' \| 'medium' \| 'high' \| 'xhigh'`	No	Provider-agnostic reasoning effort, available in AI SDK 7 or later. Maps to the provider’s native reasoning configuration; reasoning settings under `providerOptions` take precedence when both are set. See the Reasoning section below.
`providerOptions`	`Record<string, JSONValue>`	No	AI Gateway routing options under `gateway`, plus any provider-native options under the provider’s own namespace — see the table below.

Input limits

Input	Formats	Sources	Max count	Max size	Limits
Text	—	—	—	—	Prompt and response share the 164K-token context window

Provider options

Set AI Gateway routing options under providerOptions.gateway. For provider-specific options, pass them under the provider’s namespace as documented by the AI SDK.

Learn more in the AI SDK deepseek provider docs.

provider-options.ts

import { generateText } from 'ai';
import 'dotenv/config';

async function main() {
  const result = await generateText({
    model: 'deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking',
    prompt: 'Why is the sky blue?',
    providerOptions: {
      gateway: {
        only: ['novita', 'bedrock'],
      },
    },
  });

  console.log(result.text);
}

main().catch(console.error);

These AI Gateway routing options apply to every model. Provider-specific options pass through under the provider’s own namespace (for example providerOptions.anthropic) exactly as documented by the AI SDK.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`providerOptions.gateway.only`	`string[]`	No	Restrict routing to these provider slugs. Requests fail over only within the listed providers.
`providerOptions.gateway.order`	`string[]`	No	Preferred provider order. Listed providers are tried first; unlisted providers remain available as fallbacks.
`providerOptions.gateway.sort`	`'cost' \| 'ttft' \| 'tps'`	No	Rank candidate providers by price, time to first token, or tokens per second instead of the default routing order.
`providerOptions.gateway.zeroDataRetention`	`boolean`	No	Route only to providers with a zero-data-retention policy for this model.

Routing across providers

AI Gateway serves the same model through multiple providers and fails over automatically. order expresses a preference while keeping every provider eligible; only is a hard allowlist — if none of the listed providers are available the request fails instead of falling back.

Options under a provider's own namespace (for example providerOptions.anthropic) are forwarded to that provider with the request. Providers ignore option namespaces that don't apply to them, so it is safe to set provider options alongside gateway routing options.

Reasoning

AI Gateway bridges reasoning across every API format. The AI SDK exposes a provider-agnostic top-level reasoning level (none, minimal, low, medium, high, or xhigh); the Chat Completions and Responses formats take the same effort under reasoning.effort; and the Anthropic Messages format uses a native thinking token budget. Whichever you send, the gateway maps it to the target model’s native configuration, converting between effort levels and token budgets as needed. Reasoning-related settings under providerOptions take full precedence over the top-level reasoning value and are never merged. Reasoning tokens typically count toward your output-token usage, though how they’re reported and billed varies by provider.

Learn more in the AI Gateway reasoning guide.

reasoning.ts

import { generateText } from 'ai';
import 'dotenv/config';

async function main() {
  const result = await generateText({
    model: 'deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking',
    prompt: 'Explain the Monty Hall problem step by step.',
    reasoning: 'high',
  });

  console.log(result.text);
}

main().catch(console.error);

Tool calling

Expose tools the model can call. Define each tool’s inputs with a Zod schema.

tool-calling.ts

import { generateText, tool } from 'ai';
import { z } from 'zod';
import 'dotenv/config';

async function main() {
  const result = await generateText({
    model: 'deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking',
    prompt: 'What is the weather in San Francisco?',
    tools: {
      getWeather: tool({
        description: 'Get the current weather for a location',
        inputSchema: z.object({ location: z.string() }),
        execute: async ({ location }) => ({ location, temperatureC: 18 }),
      }),
    },
  });

  console.log(result.text);
}

main().catch(console.error);

Copy link to headingMore models by DeepSeek

Model

Context	Latency	Throughput	Input	Output	Cache	Web Search	Capabilities	Providers	ZDR	No Training	Free Tier	Release Date

deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-beta

1.3 s

331 tps

$0.22/M

$0.66/M

Read$0.007/M

—

09/08/2026

deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp

0.4 s

172 tps

$0.22/M

$0.65/M

Read$0.007/M

—

08/21/2026

deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro-0813

0.3 s

107 tps

$0.60/M

$1.90/M

Read$0.02/M

—

08/12/2026

deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-0731

0.5 s

244 tps

$0.07/M

$0.15/M

Read$0.007/M

—

+16

07/31/2026

deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash

0.5 s

223 tps

$0.08/M

$0.18/M

Read$0.007/M

—

04/23/2026

deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro

0.6 s

139 tps

$0.66/M

$1.98/M

Read$0.02/M

—

04/23/2026

Copy link to headingAbout DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2 became available on AI Gateway on December 1, 2025 as the reasoning-optimized variant of the V3.2 release. It operates exclusively in thinking mode, generating extended chain-of-thought reasoning traces before producing a final answer. The output token budget extends to 65.5K tokens, compared to 8K for the standard V3.2 chat variant. That headroom accommodates complex multi-step reasoning chains.

The trade-off is explicit: DeepSeek V3.2 does not support tool use. This makes it a pure reasoning engine rather than a tool-augmented agent. Where the standard DeepSeek-V3.2 supports tool calls across both reasoning and non-reasoning modes, the Thinking variant trades tool integration for a deeper reasoning budget. Use it when the reasoning process itself is the primary value, such as complex scientific analysis, multi-step mathematical derivation, or structured argument construction.

The Thinking variant and standard V3.2 are accessible through AI Gateway under the deepseek provider without separate account setup.

Copy link to headingWhat To Consider When Choosing a Provider

Configuration: DeepSeek V3.2 does not support tool use. If your pipeline needs both extended reasoning and tool calls, use the standard DeepSeek-V3.2 model, which supports tool calls in both reasoning and non-reasoning modes.
Zero Data Retention: Zero Data Retention is available for this model. It is offered on a per-provider and model basis. See the documentation for details.
Authentication: AI Gateway authenticates requests using an API key or OIDC token. You do not need to manage provider credentials directly.

Copy link to headingWhen to Use DeepSeek V3.2

Best for

Complex scientific problems: A reasoning budget of 65.5K tokens allows thorough exploration of solution paths for mathematical and logical tasks
Structured document analysis: Multi-step inference for legal reasoning, regulatory interpretation, and academic literature synthesis
Chain-of-thought output: Research contexts where seeing the full reasoning trace is part of the desired output
Reasoning model evaluation: The extended output budget lets you observe how the model approaches ambiguous or difficult prompts

Consider alternatives when

Tool calls required: Use standard DeepSeek-V3.2, which supports tool use alongside reasoning in both modes
General chat or summarization: Standard DeepSeek-V3.2 costs less per output token for instruction-following without complex reasoning
Latency-critical responses: Extended reasoning traces produce longer responses with higher time-to-complete

Copy link to headingConclusion

DeepSeek V3.2 gives you a high-capacity reasoning engine with an output budget of 65.5K tokens through a single AI Gateway endpoint, without requiring separate provider credentials. It's most valuable when problem complexity justifies deep chain-of-thought exploration and you don't need tool-use integration.

Copy link to headingFrequently Asked Questions

Does DeepSeek V3.2 support tool calling?
No. The Thinking variant is a pure reasoning engine without tool-use support. For tool calls alongside reasoning, use the standard DeepSeek-V3.2 model.
What is the maximum output token budget for DeepSeek V3.2?
Up to 65.5K tokens per response, compared to 8K for the standard V3.2 chat variant.
When would I use DeepSeek V3.2 over DeepSeek-R1?
Choose DeepSeek V3.2 for the V3.2 stack and reasoning output up to 65.5K tokens. DeepSeek-R1 is MIT-licensed. If license terms matter for your deployment, confirm the license for the model you pick.
Why does the output token budget matter for reasoning models?
Reasoning models generate a chain-of-thought trace before the final answer. Complex problems can require thousands of reasoning tokens. A budget of 65.5K tokens provides headroom for multi-step derivations that would exceed an 8K limit.
How do I access DeepSeek V3.2 through AI Gateway?
Use the model ID deepseek/deepseek-v3.2-thinking with an AI Gateway API key or OIDC token. No separate DeepSeek platform account is required.

Your use is subject to DeepSeek's Terms & Privacy Policies.

Agent Stack

Core Platform

Tools

Learn

Build

Explore

DeepSeek V3.2

Copy link to headingPlayground

Copy link to headingProviders

Copy link to headingUptime24 hours

Copy link to headingThroughput24 hours

Copy link to headingLatency24 hours

Getting started

Top-level parameters

Input limits

Provider options

Routing across providers

Reasoning

Tool calling

Copy link to headingMore models by DeepSeek

Copy link to headingAbout DeepSeek V3.2

Copy link to headingWhat To Consider When Choosing a Provider

Copy link to headingWhen to Use DeepSeek V3.2

Best for

Consider alternatives when

Copy link to headingConclusion

Copy link to headingFrequently Asked Questions