Which model is better: DeepSeek V3 or Grok 3 Mini?
DeepSeek V3 is 53.3% cheaper for input tokens ($0.14 vs. $0.30 per 1M tokens) and $0.28 vs. $1.20 for output tokens (2.1x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, Grok 3 Mini delivers lower response latency at 150ms TTFT (260ms faster than DeepSeek V3) with 160 vs. 78 tok/s throughput. Grok 3 Mini leads coding evaluations at 54.0% SWE-bench Verified vs. 42.0% for DeepSeek V3 and 68.0% 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
Grok 3 Mini
Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.14
$0.30
DeepSeek V3 is 2.1x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.28
$1.20
DeepSeek V3 (76.7% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M
$0.014
$0.080
DeepSeek V3 is 5.7x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M
$0.14
$0.30
DeepSeek V3 is 2.1x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output)
131k (8k out)
131k (16k out)
Equal Context Window
Avg TTFT Response Latency
410ms
150ms
Grok 3 Mini (260ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput)
78 tok/s
160 tok/s
Grok 3 Mini (+82 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding)
42%
54%
Grok 3 Mini (+12.0% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM)
59.1%
68%
Grok 3 Mini (+8.9% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline)
75.9%
80%
Grok 3 Mini (+4.1% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic)
90.2%
87%
DeepSeek V3 (+3.2% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR)
75 / 100
69.2 / 100
DeepSeek V3 (+5.8 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).
DeepSeek V3 is cheaper at $0.14/1M input tokens ($0.28/1M output) compared to $0.30/1M input ($1.20/1M output) for Grok 3 Mini.
Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: DeepSeek V3 or Grok 3 Mini?
Grok 3 Mini delivers faster first-token latency at 150ms TTFT (160 tok/s throughput) compared to 410ms TTFT (78 tok/s) for DeepSeek V3.
How do DeepSeek V3 and Grok 3 Mini compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?
On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, DeepSeek V3 scores 42% versus 54% for Grok 3 Mini. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, DeepSeek V3 scores 59.1% versus 68% for Grok 3 Mini (and 90.2% vs 87% 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 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).
