o3-mini vs o4-mini vs DeepSeek-R1
o4-mini comes out ahead, 59 to 52 and 51 on our weighted score, though DeepSeek-R1 is 39% cheaper per token.
OpenAIo3-mini
52/100- ECI140.3
- Price$1.10 / $4.40
- Context200K
- Our pickOpenAI
o4-mini
59/100- ECI145.6
- Price$1.10 / $4.40
- Context200K
DeepSeekDeepSeek-R1
51/100- ECI139.0
- Price$0.70 / $2.60
- Context128K
o4-mini is our pick
o4-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against o3-mini (52) and DeepSeek-R1 (51). It leads on capability and inputs & features. DeepSeek-R1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- Capabilityo4-miniCapabilities Index (ECI): o4-mini 145.6 · o3-mini 140.3 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0
- Lowest priceDeepSeek-R1DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · o3-mini $1.93 · o4-mini $1.93 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contexto3-mini and o4-minio3-mini 200,000 · o4-mini 200,000 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputso4-minio3-mini: Text · o4-mini: Text, Images · DeepSeek-R1: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | o3-mini | o4-mini | DeepSeek-R1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 66 | 73 | 64 |
| Price | 25% | 36 | 36 | 47 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 45 | 70 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 32 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 52/100 | 59/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | o3-miniOpenAI | o4-miniOpenAI | DeepSeek-R1DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 140.3 | 145.6 (best) | 139.0 |
| ECI rank | #98 of 148 | #76 of 148 (best) | #104 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 77.0% | 79.6% (best) | 71.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 18.6% | 36.1% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 76.9% | 81.7% (best) | 53.3% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 15.3% | 19.6% (best) | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.10 | $1.10 | $0.70 (best) |
| Output | $4.40 | $4.40 | $2.60 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.55 | $0.275 (best) | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.93 | $1.93 | $1.18 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official OpenAI API | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 100,000 tokens (best) | 100,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | o3-mini | o4-mini | — |
| API providers | 15 | 19 (best) | 12 |
| Released | Jan 31, 2025 | Apr 16, 2025 | Jan 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2024 | May 2024 | Jul 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- o3-mini$19.80
- o4-mini$19.80
- DeepSeek-R1$12.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: o3-mini, o4-mini or DeepSeek-R1?
o4-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against o3-mini (52) and DeepSeek-R1 (51). It leads on capability and inputs & features. DeepSeek-R1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, o3-mini, o4-mini or DeepSeek-R1?
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); o4-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) and $1.93 for o4-mini (1.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
o4-mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): o4-mini 145.6 (#76 of 148), o3-mini 140.3 (#98 of 148) and DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (143.0–147.4 vs 137.4–141.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — o4-mini 79.6%, o3-mini 77.0%, DeepSeek-R1 71.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — o4-mini 81.7%, o3-mini 76.9%, DeepSeek-R1 53.3%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o3-mini, o4-mini and DeepSeek-R1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, o4-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?
o3-mini and o4-mini have the largest context windows (200,000 and 200,000 tokens), against 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: o3-mini up to 100,000, o4-mini up to 100,000, DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
o3-mini accepts text; o4-mini accepts text and images; DeepSeek-R1 accepts text. o4-mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek-R1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; o3-mini and o4-mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
o4-mini is the newest, released Apr 16, 2025. o3-mini came out Jan 31, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o3-mini May 2024, o4-mini May 2024, DeepSeek-R1 Jul 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.
