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DeepSeek-Coder-V2 vs DeepSeek-R1

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

DeepSeek-Coder-V2 specs · DeepSeek-R1 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceDeepSeek-R1

    DeepSeek-R1 publishes pricing ($2.19 / 1M output tokens) while DeepSeek-Coder-V2 does not.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 128K-token context window.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance DeepSeek-R1 edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against DeepSeek-Coder-V2's 0. DeepSeek-R1 publishes pricing ($2.19 / 1M output tokens) while DeepSeek-Coder-V2 does not. Both ship a 128K-token context window.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

DeepSeek-R1 is the newer of the two, released 7 months after DeepSeek-Coder-V2, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. DeepSeek-Coder-V2 is usually picked for coding llm and code completion workloads, while DeepSeek-R1 sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecDeepSeek-Coder-V2DeepSeek-R1
ProviderDeepSeekDeepSeek
ReleasedJun 2024Jan 2025
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$0.55 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$2.19 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2024-07
Open weightsYes (MIT)Yes (MIT)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $4.94
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $49.35
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $95.64

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • DeepSeek-Coder-V2Pricing unavailable
  • DeepSeek-R1$0.165

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

DeepSeek-Coder-V2DeepSeek-R1
  • HumanEval90.2
  • GPQA,71.5
Pick DeepSeek-Coder-V2 if

DeepSeek-Coder-V2 fits when…

  • Code-specialist
  • MIT license
  • FIM support
Pick DeepSeek-R1 if

DeepSeek-R1 fits when…

  • Open-weight reasoning model on par with o1
  • MIT license
  • Cheap reasoning per token
Don't want either?

Consider DeepSeek-V3

DeepSeek's flagship 671B-parameter MoE, frontier-level quality at a tiny fraction of frontier prices.

See DeepSeek-V3 specsDeepSeek-Coder-V2 vs DeepSeek-V3DeepSeek-R1 vs DeepSeek-V3

Frequently asked

  • Is DeepSeek-Coder-V2 or DeepSeek-R1 cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Both DeepSeek-Coder-V2 and DeepSeek-R1 ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is DeepSeek-Coder-V2 or DeepSeek-R1 better for coding?
    Both DeepSeek-Coder-V2 and DeepSeek-R1 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Both ship with open weights. DeepSeek-Coder-V2 is licensed under MIT; DeepSeek-R1 under MIT.
  • When were DeepSeek-Coder-V2 and DeepSeek-R1 released?
    DeepSeek-Coder-V2 was released by DeepSeek on 2024-06-17. DeepSeek-R1 was released by DeepSeek on 2025-01-20.
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