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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

o3-mini vs Qwen3 235B-A22B vs DeepSeek-R1

Too close to call on our weighted score (o3-mini 52, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51, DeepSeek-R1 51). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. OpenAI

    o3-mini

    Released Jan 31, 2025Deprecated

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

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B

  3. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-R1

    Released Jan 20, 2025

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

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (o3-mini 52/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, 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 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek-R1DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Qwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · o3-mini $1.93 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contexto3-minio3-mini 200,000 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputso3-mini: Text · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text · DeepSeek-R1: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeighto3-miniQwen3 235B-A22BDeepSeek-R1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%666564
Price25%364647
Inputs & features15%453535
Context window10%322424
Overall100%52/10051/10051/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

o3-mini vs Qwen3 235B-A22B vs DeepSeek-R1 specifications side by side
Specificationo3-miniOpenAIQwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)DeepSeek-R1DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)140.3 (best)139.4139.0
ECI rank#98 of 148 (best)#103 of 148#104 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions77.0% (best)70.7%71.7%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics18.6%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics76.9% (best)—53.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions15.3%——
Price per million tokens
Input$1.10$0.70 (best)$0.70 (best)
Output$4.40$2.80$2.60 (best)
Cached input$0.55——
Blended (3:1)$1.93$1.23$1.18 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output100,000 tokens (best)16,384 tokens32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDo3-miniqwen3-235b-a22b—
API providers15 (best)712
ReleasedJan 31, 2025Apr 28, 2025Jan 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2024Apr 2025Jul 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.

  • o3-mini$19.80
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
  • DeepSeek-R1$12.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: o3-mini, Qwen3 235B-A22B or DeepSeek-R1?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (o3-mini 52/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, 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, o3-mini, Qwen3 235B-A22B or DeepSeek-R1?

DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Qwen3 235B-A22B costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); 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 $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (1× as much) and $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), Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148) and DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (137.4–141.9 vs 135.2–140.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — o3-mini 77.0%, DeepSeek-R1 71.7%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o3-mini, Qwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1 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. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

o3-mini has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B and 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: o3-mini up to 100,000, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

o3-mini accepts text; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; DeepSeek-R1 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; o3-mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is the newest, released Apr 28, 2025. o3-mini came out Jan 31, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o3-mini May 2024, Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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