Which model is better: DeepSeek V3 or Llama 4 Maverick?
DeepSeek V3 is 30.0% cheaper for input tokens ($0.14 vs. $0.20 per 1M tokens) and $0.28 vs. $0.60 for output tokens (1.4x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, Llama 4 Maverick delivers lower response latency at 135ms TTFT (275ms faster than DeepSeek V3) with 175 vs. 78 tok/s throughput. Llama 4 Maverick leads coding evaluations at 62.4% SWE-bench Verified vs. 42.0% for DeepSeek V3 and 73.8% 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
Llama 4 Maverick
Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.14
$0.20
DeepSeek V3 is 1.4x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.28
$0.60
DeepSeek V3 (53.3% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M
$0.014
$0.050
DeepSeek V3 is 3.6x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M
$0.14
$0.20
DeepSeek V3 is 1.4x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output)
131k (8k out)
1,049k (33k out)
Llama 4 Maverick (8.0x larger context)
Avg TTFT Response Latency
410ms
135ms
Llama 4 Maverick (275ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput)
78 tok/s
175 tok/s
Llama 4 Maverick (+97 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding)
42%
62.4%
Llama 4 Maverick (+20.4% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM)
59.1%
73.8%
Llama 4 Maverick (+14.7% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline)
75.9%
84.5%
Llama 4 Maverick (+8.6% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic)
90.2%
91%
Llama 4 Maverick (+0.8% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR)
75 / 100
77 / 100
Llama 4 Maverick (+2 pts)
Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster
Model production workloads across prompt, completion, and cached context tokens, or switch models on the fly.
Which is cheaper: DeepSeek V3 or Llama 4 Maverick?
DeepSeek V3 is cheaper at $0.14/1M input tokens ($0.28/1M output) compared to $0.20/1M input ($0.60/1M output) for Llama 4 Maverick.
Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: DeepSeek V3 or Llama 4 Maverick?
Llama 4 Maverick delivers faster first-token latency at 135ms TTFT (175 tok/s throughput) compared to 410ms TTFT (78 tok/s) for DeepSeek V3.
How do DeepSeek V3 and Llama 4 Maverick compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?
On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, DeepSeek V3 scores 42% versus 62.4% for Llama 4 Maverick. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, DeepSeek V3 scores 59.1% versus 73.8% for Llama 4 Maverick (and 90.2% vs 91% 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 Llama 4 Maverick?
Choose Llama 4 Maverick (Meta) for high-throughput open-weight multimodal assistants, enterprise RAG, and low-cost cloud inference on Groq and Cerebras — offering a 1,048k context window, 135ms TTFT, and $0.20/1M input pricing ($0.050/1M cached reads).
