DeepSeek apologizes for 5-hour service outage, offers 7-day usage compensation

On October 15, 2026, DeepSeek experienced a service disruption that lasted nearly five hours, affecting both its web and API services. The issue, which occurred between 8:11 and 13:04 Beijing Time, led to API service unavailability during that period. DeepSeek’s official platform announced a compensation plan, offering all API users a full refund of their 7-day usage (October 8–14) in the form of gift credits that will be automatically applied to their accounts. The company emphasized its commitment to resolving the issue and preventing future occurrences by eliminating single points of failure. The incident, which marked the largest service disruption of the month, drew significant attention online, with users reporting "server temporarily unavailable" errors and the hashtag "DeepSeek crashed" trending on Weibo. IT Home noted the widespread impact, highlighting the company’s apology and its efforts to restore service and provide compensation to affected users.