DeepSeek's open-source agent app Harness reaches 1.54 million daily users
Less than three months after launch, Harness is using 92T tokens a day, a rare public glimpse of how much computing long-running AI agents consume.
The short version
- Harness reached 1.54 million daily active users on DeepSeek's official API in under three months.
- Those users consume about 92T tokens a day, roughly 60 million per user on average.
- Everything in Harness is a plugin, even built-in features, and users can swap them out.
- Roughly six in ten active users have built a plugin, though DeepSeek admits quality varies.
- DeepSeek plans an official plugin marketplace and a creator incentive program.
Why it matters
Agent apps that work through tasks on their own use far more computing than a chat window, and Harness puts a real number on that gap. If you compare AI tools, the useful question is what a whole task costs, not what one answer costs. It also shows DeepSeek trying to compete on ecosystem, not just on cheap models.
What the numbers say
As AIBase reported, citing Bloomberg, Harness, DeepSeek's open-source framework for building agent apps, has climbed to 1.54 million daily active users on its official API. That happened in less than three months. The figure is well above the early average recorded after the desktop version formally launched.
An agent app is software that carries out multi-step tasks on its own, rather than answering one question at a time.
Why 92T tokens is a big deal
A token is a word-sized chunk of text that a model reads or writes. Harness users together consume about 92T tokens a day. Spread across 1.54 million users, that is about 60 million tokens each. This is an average, not a typical user, and some heavy users likely pull it up.
Industry observers quoted in the report call it the clearest public sign so far that long-running agent tasks need far more computing than ordinary chatbots.
Everything is a plugin
Harness treats every feature as a plugin, including the core built-in ones, and users can replace any of them. Its community has already built a large library of custom plugins, running to tens of thousands.
DeepSeek says roughly six in ten active users have made at least one plugin. It also admits that the quality of these community-made add-ons is uneven.
What DeepSeek plans next
DeepSeek intends to launch an official plugin marketplace and a creator incentive program. The program would offer token grants, technical support and promotion to people who build plugins.
The report frames this as a bid to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic on the richness of its ecosystem, not only on low model prices. That depends on keeping its core users, and usage is not the same as revenue. The source does not say what Harness earns or charges.
What to watch
- Will the official plugin marketplace and creator incentives launch, and will plugin quality improve?
- Can DeepSeek keep its core users and turn heavy token use into sustainable revenue?
Try it
Next time you compare an AI agent with a chatbot, estimate the cost of a whole task, with all its steps, instead of the price of a single answer.
Sources and links
- ReportingAIBase: the article we sourced
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Listen to the daily showsFirst reported by AIBase · Read the original. Written by the SI Agent News Desk from the reporting above.Written with AI from the source above. Every number is checked against the source. Spot a mistake? Corrections.