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DeepSeek R1 vs o3

A detailed comparison of DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) and o3 (OpenAI) across pricing, performance, and features.

Pricing Comparison

MetricDeepSeek R1o3Difference
Input / 1M tokens$0.55$0.40-27%
Output / 1M tokens$2.19$1.60-27%
Context window128K200K
Max output64K100K

Benchmark Comparison

BenchmarkDeepSeek R1o3
MMLU-Pro84%87%
HumanEval92%94.5%
GPQA71.5%79.2%

Capabilities

CapabilityDeepSeek R1o3
code
reasoning
text
tool-use
vision

DeepSeek R1 Strengths

  • Cheapest reasoning model available
  • Strong math and science performance
  • Open-source with off-peak discounts

DeepSeek R1 Weaknesses

  • Slower than non-reasoning models
  • No vision or tool-use
  • China-based — availability concerns

o3 Strengths

  • Recently repriced — now very cheap
  • Excellent logical reasoning
  • 200K context window

o3 Weaknesses

  • Slower due to reasoning overhead
  • Overkill for simple tasks

Quick Verdict

Best value: o3 is the more affordable option at $0.4/$1.6 per 1M tokens.

Higher benchmarks: o3 scores higher on average across available benchmarks (86.9% avg).

Larger context: o3 supports 200K tokens.

Choose o3 if cost matters most. Choose DeepSeek R1 if you need the best possible quality for complex tasks.

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