Which model is better: DeepSeek V3 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?
DeepSeek V3 is 89.4% cheaper for input tokens ($0.14 vs. $1.32 per 1M tokens) and $0.28 vs. $3.96 for output tokens (9.4x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, DeepSeek V3 delivers lower response latency at 410ms TTFT (110ms faster than DeepSeek V4 Pro) with 78 vs. 78 tok/s throughput. DeepSeek V4 Pro leads coding evaluations at 80.6% SWE-bench Verified vs. 42.0% for DeepSeek V3 and 90.1% vs. 59.1% 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 V3
DeepSeek V4 Pro
Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.14
$1.32
DeepSeek V3 is 9.4x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.28
$3.96
DeepSeek V3 (92.9% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M
$0.014
$0.145
DeepSeek V3 is 10.4x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M
$0.14
$1.32
DeepSeek V3 is 9.4x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output)
131k (8k out)
1,024k (128k out)
DeepSeek V4 Pro (7.8x larger context)
Avg TTFT Response Latency
410ms
520ms
DeepSeek V3 (110ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput)
78 tok/s
78 tok/s
Equal Throughput
SWE-bench Verified (Coding)
42%
80.6%
DeepSeek V4 Pro (+38.6% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM)
59.1%
90.1%
DeepSeek V4 Pro (+31.0% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline)
75.9%
88.4%
DeepSeek V4 Pro (+12.5% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic)
90.2%
97.3%
DeepSeek V4 Pro (+7.1% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR)
75 / 100
67 / 100
DeepSeek V3 (+8 pts)
Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster
Model production workloads across prompt, completion, and cached context tokens, or switch models on the fly.
DeepSeek V3 is cheaper at $0.14/1M input tokens ($0.28/1M output) compared to $1.32/1M input ($3.96/1M output) for DeepSeek V4 Pro.
Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: DeepSeek V3 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?
DeepSeek V3 delivers faster first-token latency at 410ms TTFT (78 tok/s throughput) compared to 520ms TTFT (78 tok/s) for DeepSeek V4 Pro.
How do DeepSeek V3 and DeepSeek V4 Pro compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?
On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, DeepSeek V3 scores 42% versus 80.6% for DeepSeek V4 Pro. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, DeepSeek V3 scores 59.1% versus 90.1% for DeepSeek V4 Pro (and 90.2% vs 97.3% on MATH-500).
When should you choose DeepSeek V3?
Choose DeepSeek V3 (DeepSeek) for cost-sensitive batch text processing, drafting, and open-weight self-hosted inference — offering a 131k context window, 410ms TTFT, and $0.14/1M input pricing ($0.014/1M cached reads).
When should you choose DeepSeek V4 Pro?
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro (DeepSeek) for open-weight 1.6T MoE powerhouse designed for cost-effective full-repository code generation, mathematical reasoning, and persistent chain-of-thought multi-step agent workflows — offering a 1,024k context window, 520ms TTFT, and $1.32/1M input pricing ($0.145/1M cached reads).
