DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Low)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) scores 22.1 points higher (33.5 vs 11.4) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($637 vs $461; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25).
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 33.5 | +193.9% GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is 2.9× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $637.28 | +38.3% GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is 38.3% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 19.76s | 8.26s | −58.2% GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is 58.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 193.9% more intelligence, 38.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 58.2% 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-5.6 Sol (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)GPT-5.6 Sol (Low)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-5-6-sol-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/gpt-5-6-sol-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill