DeepSeek grants you a free, non-transferable, revocable license to use, modify, and distribute the model for research or commercial purposes, subject to the conditions set out in the license.
This analysis describes what DeepSeek's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
The license is explicitly revocable, meaning DeepSeek retains the right to terminate the license grant, which creates ongoing dependency on DeepSeek's continued authorization for any organization that has built commercial products on the model.
Interpretive note: The conditions and procedures under which DeepSeek may exercise the right to revoke the license are not fully detailed in the available document text, creating uncertainty about the practical scope of this risk.
Removal of DeepSeek's restrictive license terms (non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable) eliminates key control mechanisms and the research/commercial purpose limitations.
View full change record →The revocable nature of the license grant means that organizations and developers who build products on DeepSeek-R1 do not hold an irrevocable right to continue using the model; the license can be terminated, which is an operational risk for long-term commercial deployments.
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Microsoft reserves the right to restrict the export of data that may compromise the security of the services or Microsoft's intellectual property.
Datadog reserves the right, but does not assume the obligation, to investigate any violation of these Terms or misuse of the Site.
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"DeepSeek grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable, royalty-free limited license under DeepSeek's intellectual property or other rights owned by DeepSeek embodied in the Model to use, reproduce, distribute, copy, create derivative works of, and make modifications to the Model solely for your non-commercial research purposes or commercial purposes in accordance with this License.Excerpt from DeepSeek's Model License
1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: The license grant and its revocability are matters of contract and intellectual property law.
Enforcement risk, jurisdiction flags, contract triggers, and due diligence action items.
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The license is explicitly revocable, meaning DeepSeek retains the right to terminate the license grant, which creates ongoing dependency on DeepSeek's continued authorization for any organization that has built commercial products on the model.
The revocable nature of the license grant means that organizations and developers who build products on DeepSeek-R1 do not hold an irrevocable right to continue using the model; the license can be terminated, which is an operational risk for long-term commercial deployments.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 263 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by DeepSeek.