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Some models on DeepInfra support extended chain-of-thought reasoning — the model “thinks through” a problem step by step before producing a final answer. By default, reasoning models produce a reasoning trace alongside the response. You can control this behavior with the reasoning_effort parameter.

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Supported models

Reasoning is available on models that support chain-of-thought, including:
  • deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1
Check the model catalog for the latest list.

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Controlling reasoning effort

Use reasoning_effort to control how much reasoning the model performs. Higher effort means deeper thinking but more output tokens and higher latency. 
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="$DEEPINFRA_TOKEN",
    base_url="https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Prove that the square root of 2 is irrational."}],
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "high"},
)

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

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Disabling reasoning

Set reasoning_effort to "none" to disable chain-of-thought entirely. The model will respond directly without a reasoning trace — faster and cheaper. 
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is the capital of France?"}],
    extra_body={"reasoning_effort": "none"},
)

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The reasoning parameter

For more granular control, use the reasoning object instead of reasoning_effort: 
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Solve this step by step: 15! / 13!"}],
    extra_body={
        "reasoning": {
            "effort": "medium",
            "enabled": True,
        }
    },
)
Setting "enabled": false is equivalent to reasoning_effort: "none".

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When to use reasoning

Use caseRecommended setting
Math, logic, and code problems"high" (default for reasoning models)
Multi-step analysis"medium" or "high"
Simple Q&A, translation, summarization"none"
Cost-sensitive workloads"none" or "low"

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Supported parameters

ParameterTypeDescription
reasoning_effortstringControls reasoning depth: "none", "low", "medium", "high".
reasoningobjectFine-grained reasoning config.
reasoning.effortstringSame values as reasoning_effort.
reasoning.enabledbooleanExplicitly enable or disable reasoning.

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Notes

  • Reasoning tokens count toward output token billing
  • Disabling reasoning on a reasoning model makes it behave like a standard chat model
  • reasoning_effort: "none" is equivalent to reasoning: { enabled: false }
  • Not all models support reasoning — using these parameters on a non-reasoning model has no effect

Chat Completions

Full chat completions API reference.

Streaming

Stream reasoning responses token by token.

Prompt Caching

Cache long prompts for faster reasoning.