DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek or GPT-5.6 Sol (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-5.6 Sol (Medium) scores 30.7 points higher (39.2 vs 8.5) but costs 39× as much to run the benchmark ($997 vs $25.4; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 39.2 | +361.2% GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is 4.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $997.39 | +3831.4% GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is 39× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.84s | 10.59s | −10.6% GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is 10.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 361.2% more intelligence, 3831.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 10.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)GPT-5.6 Sol (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-v3/gpt-5-6-sol-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3/gpt-5-6-sol-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill