How to Easily Install DeepSeek R1 on Your Computer (without sharing your data)

Just follow these 3 steps.

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Over the past few days, everyone has been talking about DeepSeek. Some say it’s the ChatGPT killer while others complain about its pro-china censorship.

Why not test it yourself?

Today, we’ll see how to easily install DeepSeek R1 on your computer and work with it through a user interface.

In case you prefer watching, check out my 2-minute video tutorial below and give it a like :)

Step 1: Install Ollama

Ollama is an open-source project that serves as a powerful and user-friendly platform for running LLMs on your computer. To work with DeepSeek-R1, first, we need to install Ollama.

Go to Ollama, click on download, and choose your operating system to download the file.

Once the file is downloaded, unzip it and open it. You’ll see the “Welcome to Ollama“ window below. Just click on next and install the command line.

Finally, click on “Finish”

Step 2: Install DeepSeek in your terminal

On the Ollama site, click on models. Then search for deepseek-r1 and click on it. You’ll see that DeepSeek comes in different sizes. Based on your computer’s specs, choose the version you want to download from the dropdown.

If you just want to give a test, I recommend you start with the 7b model.

After you select the version, copy the command located on the right. Here’s the command I got for 7b.

ollama run deepseek-r1:7b  

Now, open a terminal and paste the command. The model will be downloaded.

Once the installation is completed, you can start with your first test! I’ll type “hi“ and press enter.

So far, we’ve successfully installed DeepSeek on our computer and we can work with it through the terminal. That’s cool, but if you want to have a similar experience you have with ChatGPT’s UI, follow the next step.

Step 3: Install Docker and Open WebUI

Go to docker, click on download docker desktop, and install it. Once Docker is successfully installed, open it.

Then, go to Open WebUI, go to the section “Quick Start with Docker“ and copy the command below the message “If Ollama is on your computer.” Here’s the command to copy (in case you couldn’t find it)

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Open up a terminal, paste the command, and press enter.

After the command successfully runs, open Docker. Inside containers, a new element “open-webui“ will be listed. Select it and click on “Open in browser” to open a localhost.

Then you should see http://localhost:3000/ with a “Get started“ option on the bottom (in case the site doesn’t load or you get an error, try restarting docker).

After clicking on “Get started,“ you’ll have to log in or create a new account.

After logging in, you can finally work with DeepSeek R1 through a nice UI. Just click on the dropdown to select the model deepseek-r1!

Go ahead and give it your first prompt!