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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-R1 vs o3-mini

Too close to call on our weighted score (o3-mini 52, DeepSeek-R1 51). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-R1

    Released Jan 20, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.0
    • Price$0.70 / $2.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-R1

  2. OpenAI

    o3-mini

    Released Jan 31, 2025Deprecated

    52/100
    • ECI140.3
    • Price$1.10 / $4.40
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o3-mini

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (o3-mini 52/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: o3-mini for raw capability and DeepSeek-R1 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • Capabilityo3-miniCapabilities Index (ECI): o3-mini 140.3 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek-R1DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · o3-mini $1.93 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contexto3-minio3-mini 200,000 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsDeepSeek-R1: Text · o3-mini: Text
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-R1o3-mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6466
Price25%4736
Inputs & features15%3545
Context window10%2432
Overall100%51/10052/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

DeepSeek-R1 vs o3-mini specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-R1DeepSeeko3-miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.0140.3 (best)
ECI rank#104 of 148#98 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.7%77.0% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—18.6%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics53.3%76.9% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—15.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70 (best)$1.10
Output$2.60 (best)$4.40
Cached input—$0.55
Blended (3:1)$1.18 (best)$1.93
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens100,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—o3-mini
API providers1215 (best)
ReleasedJan 20, 2025Jan 31, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJul 2024May 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • DeepSeek-R1$12.20
  • o3-mini$19.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-R1 or o3-mini?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (o3-mini 52/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: o3-mini for raw capability and DeepSeek-R1 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1 or o3-mini?

DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). o3-mini costs $1.10 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.18 per million tokens for DeepSeek-R1 versus $1.93 for o3-mini (1.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

o3-mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): o3-mini 140.3 (#98 of 148) and DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (137.4–141.9 vs 136.2–140.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — o3-mini 77.0%, DeepSeek-R1 71.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — o3-mini 76.9%, DeepSeek-R1 53.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-R1 and o3-mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, o3-mini leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

o3-mini has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768, o3-mini up to 100,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek-R1 accepts text; o3-mini accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek-R1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; o3-mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

o3-mini is the newest, released Jan 31, 2025. DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: DeepSeek-R1 Jul 2024, o3-mini May 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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