DeepSeek R1 vs OpenAI o3
Side-by-side comparison of pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, and use case fit.
D
DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek
O
OpenAI o3
OpenAI
Capability radar
Normalized coding, reasoning, writing, vision, context, and value
DeepSeek R1OpenAI o3
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 | OpenAI o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price / 1M | $0.55 | $10.00 |
| Output Price / 1M | $2.19 | $40.00 |
| Combined Price / 1M | $2.74 | $50.00 |
| Context Window | 64,000 | 200,000 |
| Coding Score | 94 | 95 |
| Reasoning Score | 95 | 97 |
| Vision Score | 35 | 70 |
| Audio | No | No |
| Streaming | Yes | Yes |
| Function Calling | Yes | Yes |
| Latency Tier | reasoning | reasoning |
| Release Date | 1/20/2025 | 4/16/2025 |
DeepSeek R1 — Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- Reasoning at low cost
- Open weights available
Weaknesses
- No vision
- Slower inference
- 64K context
OpenAI o3 — Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- Frontier reasoning
- Vision in reasoning mode
Weaknesses
- Very expensive
- Slow inference
Use Case Verdicts
Enterprise Use
OpenAI o3 combines strong reasoning, tooling, and context for enterprise workloads.
Agent Workflows
OpenAI o3 is better suited for agentic workflows with tool use and coding capability.