Which model is better: DeepSeek R1 or Grok 3 Mini?
Grok 3 Mini is 45.5% cheaper for input tokens ($0.30 vs. $0.55 per 1M tokens) and $1.20 vs. $2.19 for output tokens (1.8x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, Grok 3 Mini delivers lower response latency at 150ms TTFT (1300ms faster than DeepSeek R1) with 160 vs. 58 tok/s throughput. Grok 3 Mini leads coding evaluations at 54.0% SWE-bench Verified vs. 49.2% for DeepSeek R1 and 68.0% vs. 71.5% on GPQA Diamond.
Verified daily via automated API latency tests and official documentation.
Zero-Shot RAG Verified
Verified Performance & Unit Economics Delta (12 Dimensions)
Daily synchronized metrics across token pricing, prompt cache economics, latency, throughput, and 5 capability benchmarks.
Metric / Dimension
DeepSeek R1
Grok 3 Mini
Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.55
$0.30
Grok 3 Mini is 1.8x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens
$2.19
$1.20
Grok 3 Mini (45.2% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M
$0.140
$0.080
Grok 3 Mini is 1.8x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M
$0.55
$0.30
Grok 3 Mini is 1.8x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output)
131k (33k out)
131k (16k out)
Equal Context Window
Avg TTFT Response Latency
1450ms
150ms
Grok 3 Mini (1300ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput)
58 tok/s
160 tok/s
Grok 3 Mini (+102 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding)
49.2%
54%
Grok 3 Mini (+4.8% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM)
71.5%
68%
DeepSeek R1 (+3.5% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline)
84%
80%
DeepSeek R1 (+4.0% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic)
97.3%
87%
DeepSeek R1 (+10.3% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR)
64.8 / 100
69.2 / 100
Grok 3 Mini (+4.4 pts)
Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster
Model production workloads across prompt, completion, and cached context tokens, or switch models on the fly.
Choose Grok 3 Mini (xAI) for high-speed reasoning model providing rapid answers and code generation with chain-of-thought capabilities at edge pricing — offering a 131k context window, 150ms TTFT, and $0.30/1M input pricing ($0.080/1M cached reads).
Grok 3 Mini is cheaper at $0.30/1M input tokens ($1.20/1M output) compared to $0.55/1M input ($2.19/1M output) for DeepSeek R1.
Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: DeepSeek R1 or Grok 3 Mini?
Grok 3 Mini delivers faster first-token latency at 150ms TTFT (160 tok/s throughput) compared to 1450ms TTFT (58 tok/s) for DeepSeek R1.
How do DeepSeek R1 and Grok 3 Mini compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?
On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, DeepSeek R1 scores 49.2% versus 54% for Grok 3 Mini. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, DeepSeek R1 scores 71.5% versus 68% for Grok 3 Mini (and 97.3% vs 87% on MATH-500).
When should you choose DeepSeek R1?
Choose DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) for open-weight chain-of-thought reasoning, synthetic data distillation, and complex mathematical verification — offering a 131k context window, 1450ms TTFT, and $0.55/1M input pricing ($0.140/1M cached reads).
When should you choose Grok 3 Mini?
Choose Grok 3 Mini (xAI) for high-speed reasoning model providing rapid answers and code generation with chain-of-thought capabilities at edge pricing — offering a 131k context window, 150ms TTFT, and $0.30/1M input pricing ($0.080/1M cached reads).
