Which model is better: DeepSeek V3 or OpenAI o4-mini?
DeepSeek V3 is 87.3% cheaper for input tokens ($0.14 vs. $1.10 per 1M tokens) and $0.28 vs. $4.40 for output tokens (7.9x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, DeepSeek V3 delivers lower response latency at 410ms TTFT (270ms faster than OpenAI o4-mini) with 78 vs. 125 tok/s throughput. OpenAI o4-mini leads coding evaluations at 68.1% SWE-bench Verified vs. 42.0% for DeepSeek V3 and 81.4% 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
OpenAI o4-mini
Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.14
$1.10
DeepSeek V3 is 7.9x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.28
$4.40
DeepSeek V3 (93.6% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M
$0.014
$0.275
DeepSeek V3 is 19.6x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M
$0.14
$1.10
DeepSeek V3 is 7.9x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output)
131k (8k out)
205k (100k out)
OpenAI o4-mini (1.6x larger context)
Avg TTFT Response Latency
410ms
680ms
DeepSeek V3 (270ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput)
78 tok/s
125 tok/s
OpenAI o4-mini (+47 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding)
42%
68.1%
OpenAI o4-mini (+26.1% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM)
59.1%
81.4%
OpenAI o4-mini (+22.3% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline)
75.9%
85.6%
OpenAI o4-mini (+9.7% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic)
90.2%
97.8%
OpenAI o4-mini (+7.6% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR)
75 / 100
63.7 / 100
DeepSeek V3 (+11.3 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 $1.10/1M input ($4.40/1M output) for OpenAI o4-mini.
Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: DeepSeek V3 or OpenAI o4-mini?
DeepSeek V3 delivers faster first-token latency at 410ms TTFT (78 tok/s throughput) compared to 680ms TTFT (125 tok/s) for OpenAI o4-mini.
How do DeepSeek V3 and OpenAI o4-mini compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?
On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, DeepSeek V3 scores 42% versus 68.1% for OpenAI o4-mini. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, DeepSeek V3 scores 59.1% versus 81.4% for OpenAI o4-mini (and 90.2% vs 97.8% 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 OpenAI o4-mini?
Choose OpenAI o4-mini (OpenAI) for automated PR review, high-volume agentic coding loops, SQL/data analysis, and visual document reasoning — offering a 204k context window, 680ms TTFT, and $1.10/1M input pricing ($0.275/1M cached reads).
