DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs Grok 4.6 (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek or Grok 4.6 (High) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (High) scores 35.8 points higher (44.3 vs 8.5) but costs 77× as much to run the benchmark ($1963 vs $25.4; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (High) when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | Grok 4.6 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 44.3 | +421.2% Grok 4.6 (High) is 5.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $1,962.90 | +7637.1% Grok 4.6 (High) is 77× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.89s | 31.72s | +166.8% Grok 4.6 (High) is 166.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (High) vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 421.2% more intelligence, 7637.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 166.8% slower 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.
- Grok 4.6 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)Grok 4.6 (High)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/grok-4-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3/grok-4-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill