DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) scores 2.9 points higher (11.4 vs 8.5) but costs 18× as much to run the benchmark ($461 vs $25.4; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 8.5 | −25.4% DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is 25.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $25.37 | −94.5% DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is 94.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.16s | 10.23s | −49.3% DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is 49.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $0.32 / $0.89 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 25.4% less intelligence, 94.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 49.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/deepseek-v3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/deepseek-v3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill