So you want to run DeepSeek V3 locally? Join the club. Everyone’s looking for ways to ditch the cloud and use powerful AI offline. But here’s the harsh truth: you can’t run DeepSeek V3 offline—at least not yet. It’s a cloud-based model with no local download, no open weights, and no backdoor magic. But don’t bail just yet. This guide cuts through the hype and shows you exactly what’s possible right now, from offline AI alternatives like LLaMA 3 and Mistral to step-by-step instructions for running open-source models locally on your laptop, PC, or even your phone.
Let’s not waste your time: you can’t run DeepSeek V3 locally right now.
It’s a cloud-based AI. No offline access. No open weights. No secret workaround.
But that doesn’t mean you’re out of options. If you’re serious about local AI tools, there are powerful open-source models that give you DeepSeek-like performance without needing an internet connection. This guide will walk you through what’s possible today, what’s not, and what you can do instead.
What is DeepSeek V3?
DeepSeek V3 is the latest flagship model from DeepSeek, known for its impressive performance in both natural language tasks and coding. It competes with top-tier models like GPT-4 and Claude. But here’s the catch: it runs entirely in the cloud.
That means you can only use it through:
- DeepSeek’s official chat interface
- Their API (with authentication)
- Internet connection required 100% of the time
So if you’re looking to go offline, this model is currently off-limits.
So What Can You Do Instead?
If you want a DeepSeek-like experience offline, here’s what actually works in 2025:
Option 1: Use Open-Source Alternatives
These models are the current kings of the local AI hill:
- LLaMA 3 (Meta)
- Available in 8B and 70B sizes
- State-of-the-art reasoning and text generation
- Mistral 7B / Mixtral 8x7B
- Insanely fast, great at code and general tasks
- Phi-3 (Microsoft)
- Small, efficient, surprisingly capable
- DeepSeek LLM (if released)
- DeepSeek has shared some models before (e.g., DeepSeek-Coder)
- Keep checking DeepSeek’s Hugging Face
How to Run These Models Locally
No cloud. No nonsense. Just install and go.
On Desktop (Windows/macOS/Linux):
- LM Studio
- Website: lmstudio.ai
- Dead-simple GUI
- Download, load a model, start chatting
- Ollama
- Website: ollama.ai
- Command-line interface
- Run this to get started:
ollama pull llama3 ollama run llama3
- Text-generation-webui (GitHub)
- Advanced, customizable, dev-friendly
On Mobile (Android):
- MLC Chat
- Runs models like LLaMA 3 natively on phones
- Get it via GitHub
Want to Build Your Own Chatbot UI?
Here’s how to self-host your own ChatGPT-style app offline:
- Download a model (e.g., Mixtral)
- Use vLLM or FastChat to serve it locally
- Connect with a frontend like Chatbot UI or Open WebUI
Boom. Your own private DeepSeek-ish assistant.
Hardware Requirements
- Small models (7B): 8GB+ RAM, CPU-only works
- Mid-size models (13B): 16GB+ RAM, discrete GPU preferred
- Large models (70B): 24GB+ VRAM (RTX 3090/4090 or A100+)
Use quantized models (e.g., GGUF) to save RAM and disk space.
Will DeepSeek V3 Ever Be Open Source?
Maybe.
DeepSeek has previously released open models like DeepSeek-Coder-6.7B. If they choose to release V3 as open-weight (like Meta did with LLaMA), you’ll be able to run it locally.
For now:
- No release
- No timeline
- No offline version
Keep checking:
- github.com/deepseek-ai
- huggingface.co/deepseek-ai
TL;DR:
- You can’t run DeepSeek V3 locally. It’s cloud-only.
- Open-source alternatives like LLaMA 3, Mixtral, Phi-3 work great offline.
- Use tools like Ollama or LM Studio to get started.
- Monitor DeepSeek’s GitHub/Hugging Face in case they release V3 weights.