I Built a DeepSeek API Gateway with PayPal — No Chinese Phone Number Required

If you're a developer outside China trying to use DeepSeek's API, you've probably hit these walls:

• ❌ Requires a +86 phone number for SMS verification
• ❌ Alipay/WeChat Pay only — no PayPal, no international cards
• ❌ Most documentation in Chinese

I spent a whole weekend fighting that, so I built a bridge.

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What I built:

A lightweight API gateway that gives you an OpenAI-compatible endpoint for DeepSeek models. Just change your base_url and api_key — everything else works like the OpenAI SDK.

• ✅ PayPal supported — no Chinese payment required
• ✅ No Chinese phone number, no KYC
• ✅ Drop-in replacement for OpenAI SDK
• ✅ Pay-as-you-go credits, no monthly commitment

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Quick Start:

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://ai-relay-chen-zhong.vercel.app/v1",
    api_key="your-api-key"  # provided after purchase
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-chat",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, how are you?"}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Pricing:

Plan	Price	Credits
Starter	$2.00	5M tokens
Standard	$5.00	15M tokens
Pro	$10.00	35M tokens

Pay via PayPal — no Chinese payment method required.

How to get started:

Pay via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/QAZAVE789Z338

Receive your API key via email within 24 hours.

Replace base_url and api_key in your code.

Why I built this:

I built this as a side project to validate an idea — that enough developers would pay a small amount to skip platform friction. If you're an AI developer outside China who wants to try DeepSeek without the hassle, this is for you.

Questions?

Drop a comment or email me at [e-mail]. Happy to answer technical questions. 🙏