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DeepSeek-R1 vs Qwen2.5-Coder-32B

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 · Qwen2.5-Coder-32B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceDeepSeek-R1

    DeepSeek-R1 publishes pricing ($2.19 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen2.5-Coder-32B 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 Qwen2.5-Coder-32B's 0. DeepSeek-R1 publishes pricing ($2.19 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen2.5-Coder-32B 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 2 months after Qwen2.5-Coder-32B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. DeepSeek-R1 is usually picked for reasoning and math workloads, while Qwen2.5-Coder-32B sees more deployments in coding llm and code completion. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecDeepSeek-R1Qwen2.5-Coder-32B
ProviderDeepSeekAlibaba
ReleasedJan 2025Nov 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$0.55 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$2.19 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2024-07,
Open weightsYes (MIT)Yes (Apache-2.0)
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$4.94 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$49.35 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$95.64 vs ,

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-R1$0.165
  • Qwen2.5-Coder-32BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

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

DeepSeek-R1Qwen2.5-Coder-32B
  • HumanEval,92.7
  • GPQA71.5
Pick DeepSeek-R1 if

DeepSeek-R1 fits when…

  • Open-weight reasoning model on par with o1
  • MIT license
  • Cheap reasoning per token
Pick Qwen2.5-Coder-32B if

Qwen2.5-Coder-32B fits when…

  • Top open-weight coder
  • Apache-2.0
  • FIM-native
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-R1 vs DeepSeek-V3Qwen2.5-Coder-32B vs DeepSeek-V3

Frequently asked

  • Is DeepSeek-R1 or Qwen2.5-Coder-32B 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-R1 and Qwen2.5-Coder-32B ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is DeepSeek-R1 or Qwen2.5-Coder-32B better for coding?
    Both DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen2.5-Coder-32B 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-R1 is licensed under MIT; Qwen2.5-Coder-32B under Apache-2.0.
  • When were DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen2.5-Coder-32B released?
    DeepSeek-R1 was released by DeepSeek on 2025-01-20. Qwen2.5-Coder-32B was released by Alibaba on 2024-11-12.
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