DeepSeek-R1 vs o4-mini
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
DeepSeek-R1 specs · o4-mini specs- PriceDeepSeek-R1
DeepSeek-R1 is roughly 2.0× cheaper on output tokens ($2.19 vs $4.40 per 1M).
- Context windowo4-mini
o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
- Benchmarkso4-mini
o4-mini leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on GPQA (graduate-level reasoning), where it scores 81.4 vs 71.5.
- Modalitieso4-mini
o4-mini supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for DeepSeek-R1.
- OpennessDeepSeek-R1
DeepSeek-R1 ships open weights (MIT); o4-mini is API-only.
On balance o4-mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against DeepSeek-R1's 2. DeepSeek-R1 is roughly 2.0× cheaper on output tokens ($2.19 vs $4.40 per 1M). o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
o4-mini leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on GPQA (graduate-level reasoning), where it scores 81.4 vs 71.5. They differ in modality coverage, DeepSeek-R1 handles text while o4-mini handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. DeepSeek-R1 ships open weights (MIT); o4-mini is API-only.
o4-mini is the newer of the two, released 3 months after DeepSeek-R1, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. DeepSeek-R1 is usually picked for reasoning and math workloads, while o4-mini 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
| Spec | DeepSeek-R1 | o4-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Released | Jan 2025 | Apr 2025 |
| Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $0.55 / 1M tokens | $1.10 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $2.19 / 1M tokens | $4.40 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-07 | 2024-06 |
| Open weights | Yes (MIT) | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
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$4.94 vs $9.90
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$49.35 vs $99.00
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$95.64 vs $191
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $4.94 vs $9.90 per month, model A comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $49.35 vs $99.00 per month, model A comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $95.64 vs $191 per month, model A comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- DeepSeek-R1$0.165
- o4-mini$0.330
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- GPQA71.581.4
DeepSeek-R1 fits when…
- Open-weight reasoning model on par with o1
- MIT license
- Cheap reasoning per token
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 2.0× cheaper than o4-mini on output tokens.
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (MIT).
o4-mini fits when…
- Strong reasoning at mid-tier price
- Fast for a thinking model
- Solid tool-use
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for DeepSeek-R1.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Consider DeepSeek-V3
DeepSeek's flagship 671B-parameter MoE, frontier-level quality at a tiny fraction of frontier prices.
Frequently asked
Is DeepSeek-R1 or o4-mini cheaper?
DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper at $2.19 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $4.40 / 1M tokens for o4-mini.Which has the larger context window?
o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for DeepSeek-R1.Is DeepSeek-R1 or o4-mini better for coding?
Both DeepSeek-R1 and o4-mini 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?
DeepSeek-R1 ships open weights (MIT). o4-mini is API-only.When were DeepSeek-R1 and o4-mini released?
DeepSeek-R1 was released by DeepSeek on 2025-01-20. o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
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