DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI? 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
GPT-5.5 (Medium) scores 22.4 points higher (33.8 vs 11.4) but costs 4.5× as much to run the benchmark ($2095 vs $461; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 11.4, and DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when 11.4 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 33.8 | +196.5% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 3.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $2,095.12 | +354.7% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 4.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.14s | 11.50s | −42.9% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 42.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 196.5% more intelligence, 354.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 42.9% 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.
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)GPT-5.5 (Medium)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/gpt-5-5-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/gpt-5-5-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill