Hello, I'm Artem, I test dozens of AI tools and models and have been using DeepSeek R1 right since it became available. Today I want to talk about DeepSeek's… image abilities? Here is a thing that people ask me now and then: can deepseek create images? And my answer might surprise you, this is not what you would find on a boring official release or in mass media, but something that would surely be useful.

I will also explain my workflow of making images with ease using DeepSeek.

• I use Deepseek mostly on WritingMate.ai now as it has much less limits, a very affordable pricing and a dozen of features that neither ChatGPT nor Claude AI chatbot or even DeepSeek chatbot have.

• Examples of such features: prompt libraries, use of AI agents and assistants, one-click prompt enhancement, tool builders and much more.

• And of course, the main feature is that you can use over a hundred top AI models within one chatbot, with no API keys needed, starting at 9 dollars per mont, or even for free.

Deepseek is also free if you are not on API. But what about its abilities of vision and image generation? What makes it finally able to do it?

Let me break down what DeepSeek can actually do when it comes to images.

Does DeepSeek Actually Make Images?

Yes, but it's more complicated than just yes. So,can deepseek make images? It can do so through Janus-Pro model, which is not some actual site or chatbot. Here's the catch - you can't just type "make me a picture" in regular DeepSeek chat.

• If you are working through its original chatbot, then image magic happens through Janus-Pro.

• Janus Pro is DeepSeek's multimodal breakthrough that launched in early 2025.

• I see it as a complete visual intelligence system. This can both understand & right away create pictures from scratch. Think of it like DeepSeek's creative cousin that finally learned to paint.

• You can also generate images using full power of DeepSeek prompting and all the best image generating models like DALLE/GPT Image, Stable Diffusion and even Flux.ai, right on writingmate.ai

You see, Janus has a dual-pathway architecture. It uses separate neural pathways for visual understanding & also visual generation. Technically speaking, they are combined in one unified system and you can feed it an image to analyze, or give it text to create something entirely new. Its technical specs are impressive too: for example, its largest version Janus-Pro-7B now packs up to 7 billion parameters into a surprisingly compact package. GPT and Gemini, beware!

Here are some key Janus-Pro capabilities on DeepSeek image generation or vision:

• Text-to-image generation from detailed prompts

• Image analysis and captioning for uploaded photos

• OCR functionality to read text within images

• Style transfer, also image editing tasks

• Multimodal reasoning combining text & its visual inputs

I know, I know… Those performance claims are bold. DeepSeek's team says Janus-Pro-7B matches and beats DALL-E 3 on certain benchmarks. And that's remarkable for a tiny budget open-source model that you can download and run yourself. They've made all the model weights available on Hugging Face, to declare some commitment to AI development and AI community.

But! Here's where things get tricky. The regular DeepSeek chat interface doesn't show you images directly.

• You will not find a simple "generate image" button like you might expect.

• DeepSeek focused on open-sourcing the technology, not on building a consumer-friendly image interface right away. There is an app for that, as some say (hint)

When it comes to a lot of daily R1 users, this creates a practical problem. Upon the first glance, you seem to have two main options:

Option 1: Run Janus-Pro yourself

• Download the model from GitHub or Hugging Face

• Then take time and set up all that technical environment (Docker much recommended!)

• Need decent hardware (GPU preferred for a better speed)

• Free to use but requires technical skills

Option 2: Use third-party platforms

• Services like WritingMate.ai integrate multiple AI models

• Get DeepSeek's reasoning + professional image generation

• No technical setup required

• Access to multiple image models for comparison and use image generation with most models

The resolution is now limited to about 384x384 pixels during processing, which means fine details can, unfortunantely, get lost. Use images with large texts, or without a lot of such fine details, or just switch the model. DeepSeek is not quite at the level of commercial services yet, but for an open-source solution, it's impressive progress even in 2025.

This opens up entirely new creative workflows and that excites me. You could have DeepSeek analyze your photos, then suggest improvements, and only after that use Janus-Pro to generate variations. Or start with a text idea, have DeepSeek refine the concept, then visualize it through the image model.

With Writingmate, it is much moe easier than that and you don't have to be any kind of advanced user, you just click a button and set image preferences. Below, you see the process of making images with Claude + flux. Claude is also not a model you think of when googling ai images :)

Which DeepSeek Models Work with Images?

Here's where it gets confusing. And there comes my second answer. Again, can Deepseek r1 generate images? In its original chatbot, no, it can't. DeepSeek R1 is text-only. Same with DeepSeek V3.

Only Janus-Pro handles images, or image generation plugin on Writingmate when you use DeepSeek. The regular models on DeepSeek's own chatbot focus on text and reasoning. So when people ask about image generation, they often think of the wrong model.

How to Actually Use DeepSeek for Images

There are two main ways and I will be very brief here:

Method 1: Run Janus-Pro Yourself

You can download Janus-Pro from Hugging Face. It's open-source and free. But you'll need:

• Technical skills

• Good hardware (GPU recommended)

• Time to set it up

Method 2: Use DeepSeek as a Prompt Creator

If you already use DeepSeek for text or code, why not to use the most of it? Enhance your prompts, generate new ones with deepseek or even enhance your prompts in one click if you are using DeepSeek or any other model on Writingmate. This is smarter… for most people!

• Ask DeepSeek to write detailed image descriptions. Then feed those to other AI image makers.

• For example: "DeepSeek, describe a futuristic cityscape for an AI image generator"

• DeepSeek then gives you some amazing descriptions. Copy that to DALL-E or Midjourney, or Flux, either on their respective chtbots or inside an all-in-one tool Writingmate.

Image Analysis: What DeepSeek Can Actually See

Can deepseek analyze images? Oh yes, and it's pretty good at it. Can deepseek read images? Of course, its vision capabilities do it, in quite a similar way as it happens in ChatGPT. So, you can upload photos and ask DeepSeek to:

• Describe what's in the picture

• Read text from images

• Identify objects

• Explain diagrams

But here come the limits. How many images can you upload to deepseek? Free users get 1 image per session (max 5MB). Paid users can upload multiple images up to 50MB each. You can feel more free when it comes to limits if you use writingmate as even using its 9 dollar / month plan will get rid of many of those annoying limits.

When we talk about DeepSeek, the quality isn't so perfect. Images get processed at about 384x384 pixels, that is quite low. So fine details might get missed. My idea is to combine and mix use of DeepSeek with other models, because each model has its best use cases.

Real-World Examples

I tested DeepSeek with different types of images to see how it reads images:

Street signs: It could read most text correctly…

Diagrams: Good at explaining simple charts and finds great wording to do it.

Photos: Decent descriptions but sometimes missed details. Good for the price but may be better.

Screenshots: Could read text but layout understanding was basic, also some high-res screenshots don't read well often.

Practical Use Cases

Here's how people actually use DeepSeek (found across reddit + offline communication):

Students mostly upload confusing diagrams from textbooks and ask "what's this thing?" DeepSeek reads charts, also explains science diagrams, can change messy lecture slides into notes for you to study from. My acquaintance in med school uploads anatomy pictures and gets explanations that make way more sense than the textbook. He also uses AI agent for medical student that we have on Writingmate.ai and combines it with DeepSeek on that same chatbot.

Work folks use it differently. Engineers show it technical drawings to spot problems. Marketing people feed it spreadsheet screenshots and ask for presentation ideas. One accountant I know scans receipts and invoices - DeepSeek pulls out the important numbers faster than doing it manually.

Artists and designers found a weird trick - they chat with DeepSeek about their ideas, then copy those descriptions into image generators like DALL-E. Works way better than trying to write prompts yourself. Some upload artwork and ask DeepSeek to explain the style, then use that info for their own projects. Writers do this too - describe a scene to DeepSeek, get a detailed prompt, then make concept art on WritingMate.ai.

Creative Workarounds with WritingMate

Here's where things get interesting as WritingMate.ai seems to have solved the image problem that we started with differently to that bulky process with Janus Pro.

You can chat with DeepSeek and generate images with other AI models, all in one place. As simple as that, it works as a one-click plugin. Now Writingmate supports:

• DALL-E 3

• Stable Diffusion 3

• FLUX.1 Pro

• Recraft V3

And here's how it works:

1. Chat with DeepSeek about your idea

2. Ask for an image description

3. Generate the image using our integrated models

4. Have the model analyze the result next. And continue your chat with DeepSeek. Switch is very easy.

This gives you the best of both worlds, in myopinion. You have DeepSeek's smart thinking + some world-class image generation of those top image generation models.

What Else Can DeepSeek Do?

What can deepseek do beyond images? Quite a lot. I have also written an article comparing DeepSeek to o3 mini in coding, reasoning and other aspects. You can read it here: OpenAI o3 Mini vs DeepSeek R1: Comparison.

Coding Help

DeepSeek is very decent at both basic and advanced programming tasks. In my experience, it can:

• Write code in multiple languages

• Debug all kinds of errors

• Explain complex algorithms

• Review code quality

And do that quite well. But many people also use DeepSeek for its…

Writing and Content

Like other AI chatbots, DeepSeek handles:

• Essays and articles

• Creative writing

• Translations

• Summaries of long documents

Math and Logic

The R1 model (DeepThink mode) is great for:

• Complex math problems

• Step-by-step reasoning

• Logical puzzles

• Data analysis

Research Tasks

DeepSeek is also capable of:

• Summarize long PDFs with a simplest prompt possible: "Summarize!"

• Answer questions about documents

• Search the web for current info

• Analyze research papers

Here is how model switch shows on Writingmate and it can help you implement all of those tips easily.

Geographic and Technical Limits

People on Twitter often ask me something in line of: "Can i use deepseek in the US?" Yes, but with some caveats. DeepSeek works in the US for regular users. It even hit #1 on the App Store.

But… some government agencies banned it due to privacy concerns. On one hand, the data goes to Chinese servers, which worries some people. And there are known issues with censorship, which also are not a big issue for many. On the other hand, DeepSeek works in many regions where GPT does not. And Writingmate is the place where hundreds of top AI models meet and are usable from almost everywhere in the world.

As for Deepseek privacy. For personal use, it's quite fine. Just be aware of where your data goes. And be careful when using it for corporate stuff or even some government-related tasks. Maybe, don't give it too much info.

What DeepSeek Can't Do

Can deepseek generate videos? No, like, absolutely no. There's no video creation feature (yet). It's not Kling AI. Other limitations you should have in mind:

• No audio generation

• No voice mode (unlike GPT or Writingmate all-in-one AI that also works with DeepSeek)

• Sometimes refuses sensitive topics

• Can and will hallucinate (like other AI models)

My Set of DeepSeek Tips for Better Results

Here is a quick list of tips that I use and you may find useful as well. It works for other models too, but is particularly useful inside of DeepSeek.

For Image Analysis

First, be sure that you use clear, high-quality images. Also:

• Ask specific questions

• Try different angles if it misses something

• Keep images under the size limits

For Image Creation (via prompts)

You can just ask chatbot to be very detailed. Some must-do's also include:

• Request multiple variations

• Specify style preferences

• Include technical details

For General Tasks

I advise you to try using the R1 model for complex reasoning. It compares well to how OpenAI's models reason, or what Llama 4 can do. I have written an article on this one, as well:

• Break big tasks into smaller steps

• Provide context and examples

• Ask for explanations of the reasoning

What can you do with Deepseek, a Quick Summary

DeepSeek is not full of clout or hype, in many areas it remains a complete AI assistant that can:

• Analyze and read images

• Create detailed prompts for image generation

• Write code, debug various problems

• Work with complex reasoning tasks

• Process long and enormous documents

• Search the web for current up-to-date info

• Support multiple languages

In my opinion, the key is understanding lies in which model to use for which task. For that, you may want to use multiple, compare them, try and play around. Different models suit different use cases.

WritingMate for Multiple AI Models Use

When you need serious AI power, WritingMate.ai gives you access to:

• DeepSeek R1, all its models

• GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini

• O3-mini that does reasoning well

• Claude 4 Sonnet and Claude 4 Opus

• The Latest Mistral

• New Llama models

• Gemini 3

Plus you can have miraculous image generation with any of those:

• Stable Diffusion 3

• FLUX.1 AI

• DALL-E / GPT Image Generation

• Other top models for images coming soon!

You can use all of those in one interface, switch models in the middle of the chat and also have no switching between apps and trying to provide them context or figure out where they work best. No complex setup and it all starts at 9 dollars per month. Try it for free, here: new.writingmate.ai

MyFinal Thoughts

DeepSeek can work with images, but it is not how most people expect. It is very decent at analyzing pictures and creating amazing prompts or making most out of any prompts you do already. For actual image generation, you'll need workarounds, either with Janus Pro workflow or with a tool like Writingmate to switch chats and models while keeping context and not hitting your wallet much.

In my opinion, the power really comes from combining DeepSeek with other best tools. Use it for thinking and reasoning. Use specialized models for creating. Such approach can give you far better results than any single AI alone, and it already helps thousands of people.

• Everyone says that AI world changes fast and what is written now may not be up-to-date tomorrow.

• Even so, I believe that AI does not limit itself to OpenAI, MetaAI or Google AI projects.

• DeepSeek has already proven it can compete with the best American AI models, and has its place both on the market and in many people's daily workflow.

Try it yourself, mix models, compare them, use AI models for what they were developed for. Find what works for you and then you can also scale it if you wish.

For detailed articles on AI, visit our useful blog that we make with a love of technology, people and their needs.

See you in the next articles!

Artem