DeepSeek-V3.2 notes: Thinking in the tool-use era

DeepSeek-V3.2 shipped on 1 December 2025 as the reasoning-first successor to V3.2-Exp. Official bullets: live on app, web, and API; Thinking inside tool-use; a Speciale sibling that was API-only, heavier on tokens, and aimed at contest-level math and coding. I include V3.2 because the official footer still links it under Research, not because it is the current chat default.

The important product idea that survived into V4 is Thinking during tool-use. V3.2 was the first DeepSeek model they described that way. If you are reading old notebooks that say deepseek-chat, check whether they predate V4. Current docs want deepseek-v4-flash or deepseek-v4-pro.

For the live flagship, go to DeepSeek-V4-Pro. For the hybrid Think toggle that arrived just before V3.2-Exp, see DeepSeek-V3.1.