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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs GPT-4.1 mini vs DeepSeek-V3

Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-4.1 mini 60, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58, DeepSeek-V3 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

  2. OpenAI

    GPT-4.1 mini

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI135.0
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1 mini

  3. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3

    Released Dec 26, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI132.3
    • Price$0.32 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, DeepSeek-V3 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-4.1 mini for raw capability and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-4.1 miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2
  • Lowest priceLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · DeepSeek-V3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · DeepSeek-V3: Text
  • Self-hostingLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and DeepSeek-V3Publishes downloadable weights (DeepSeek Model License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructGPT-4.1 miniDeepSeek-V3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%565956
Price25%665764
Inputs & features15%507025
Context window10%606124
Overall100%58/10060/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs GPT-4.1 mini vs DeepSeek-V3 specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMetaGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIDeepSeek-V3DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)132.2135.0 (best)132.3
ECI rank#122 of 148#115 of 148 (best)#121 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions67.0% (best)65.9%56.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics20.6%44.7% (best)15.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—12.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.321$0.40$0.32 (best)
Output$0.91 (best)$1.60$1.10
Cached input—$0.10—
Blended (3:1)$0.468 (best)$0.70$0.515
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 6 providersOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 5 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens32,768 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpenDeepSeek Model License
API model ID—gpt-4.1-mini—
API providers624 (best)5
ReleasedApr 5, 2025Apr 14, 2025Dec 26, 2024
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Apr 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.

  • Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
  • DeepSeek-V3$5.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct, GPT-4.1 mini or DeepSeek-V3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, DeepSeek-V3 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-4.1 mini for raw capability and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct, GPT-4.1 mini or DeepSeek-V3?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.32 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.468 per million tokens for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct versus $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (1.1× as much) and $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148), DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (131.2–136.6 vs 127.5–135.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, DeepSeek-V3 56.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%, DeepSeek-V3 15.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct, GPT-4.1 mini and DeepSeek-V3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-4.1 mini leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 mini has the largest context window at 1,047,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3. Maximum output per response: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; DeepSeek-V3 accepts text. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and DeepSeek-V3 publishes its weights (DeepSeek Model License) and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GPT-4.1 mini is the newest, released Apr 14, 2025. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 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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