DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek or GPT-5.6 Terra (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 Terra (Medium) scores 21.6 points higher (30.1 vs 8.5) but costs 18× as much to run the benchmark ($447 vs $25.4; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (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 Terra (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 30.1 | +254.1% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 3.5× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $446.53 | +1660.1% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 18× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.85s | 6.08s | −56.1% GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) is 56.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 254.1% more intelligence, 1660.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 56.1% 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 Terra (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)GPT-5.6 Terra (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-terra-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3/gpt-5-6-terra-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill