DeepSeek-R1 vs OpenAI o1: The Ultimate Reasoning Models Benchmark Comparison
Definitive comparison of DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI o1. Evaluating AIME 2024 (79.8% vs 79.2%), MATH-500 (97.3% vs 96.4%), Codeforces 2,029 ELO, 27x price difference, and MIT open weights.
Quick Verdict
DeepSeek-R1 is the indisputable winner for cost-sensitive developers, enterprise self-hosting, and mathematical/code reasoning pipelines ($0.55 input vs $15.00 on o1). OpenAI o1 remains compelling for users embedded in ChatGPT Plus and teams needing OpenAI's managed enterprise compliance guarantees.
The arrival of test-time compute scaling and reinforcement learning reasoning models has revolutionized artificial intelligence. OpenAI introduced o1 as the first frontier reasoning model with hidden chain-of-thought processing, followed by DeepSeek's monumental open-weights release of DeepSeek-R1. DeepSeek-R1 matches or surpasses OpenAI o1 on premier mathematics, algorithmic coding, and competition benchmarks at a fraction of the inference cost.
Models at a Glance
DeepSeek-R1
by DeepSeek
Pay-as-you-go API
DeepSeek Platform API
OpenAI o1
by OpenAI
$200/month (o1 Pro)
ChatGPT Pro / Plus ($20/mo with limits)
Capabilities Comparison
| Capability | DeepSeek-R1 | OpenAI o1 |
|---|---|---|
| Text Generation | ||
| Code Generation | ||
| Image Generation | ||
| Vision / Image Understanding | ||
| Video Generation | ||
| Audio / Voice Generation | ||
| Web Browsing / Search | ||
| Code Execution | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Structured Output (JSON) | ||
| Advanced Reasoning (CoT) | ||
| File Upload & Analysis | ||
| Fine-Tuning | ||
| Plugins / Extensions | ||
| Memory / History | ||
| Agentic Capabilities | ||
| Custom Bots |
Use Case Ratings
DeepSeek-R1
OpenAI o1
Benchmark Scores
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | OpenAI o1 |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU (Knowledge) | 90.8% | 91.8% |
| MMLU-Pro | 84.0% | 85.2% |
| HumanEval (Coding) | 96.1% | 94.8% |
| GPQA (Graduate Q&A) | 71.5% | 75.2% |
| MATH (Competition) | 97.3% | 96.4% |
| GSM8K (Grade Math) | 98.8% | 98.5% |
| ARC (Reasoning) | 98.5% | 98.8% |
| HellaSwag | 97.2% | 97.6% |
| MT-Bench | 9.62 | 9.60 |
| LMSYS Arena ELO | 1357 | 1353 |
| SWE-Bench | 49.2% | 48.9% |
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | DeepSeek-R1 | OpenAI o1 |
|---|---|---|
| AIME 2024 (American Invitational Math Exam) | 79.8% Pass@1 (Top Score) | 79.2% Pass@1 |
| MATH-500 Benchmark Score | 97.3% (Class Leader) | 96.4% |
| API Price per 1 Million Output Tokens | $2.19 / M (27x Cheaper) | $60.00 / M |
| Open Weights & Self-Hosting (MIT License) | Yes (Full 671B Weights + Distills Available) | No (Proprietary Cloud API Only) |
| GPQA Diamond (Graduate Scientific Reasoning) | 71.5% | 75.2% (Top Score) |
| Max Context Window | 128,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
Pricing Comparison
| Plan | DeepSeek-R1 | OpenAI o1 |
|---|---|---|
| Free Version | ||
| Subscription | Pay-as-you-go API | $200/month (o1 Pro) |
| API Input (1M tokens) | $0.55 | $15.00 |
| API Output (1M tokens) | $2.19 | $60.00 |
Pros & Cons
DeepSeek-R1
✅ Pros
- Record competition math performance: 79.8% AIME 2024 Pass@1 and 97.3% MATH-500
- 2,029 ELO rating on Codeforces (96.3rd percentile of competitive programmers)
- Unbeatable economics ($0.55 in / $2.19 out vs $15.00 / $60.00 on o1)
- 100% open weights under MIT license with Distill models (1.5B to 70B)
❌ Cons
- Reasoning chains take additional time before output begins
- No vision or image analysis support in base R1
OpenAI o1
✅ Pros
- Top-tier graduate scientific reasoning (75.2% GPQA Diamond)
- Huge 200,000 token context window and 100,000 max output tokens
- Vision reasoning support (can inspect complex engineering schematics)
- Deep enterprise alignment and safety compliance
❌ Cons
- Extremely expensive API pricing ($15.00 input / $60.00 output per 1M tokens)
- Hidden chain-of-thought (reasoning tokens cannot be viewed raw in API)
🏆 Who Wins in Each Category?
Best Mathematics & Competition Coding Value
97.3% on MATH-500 and 2,029 Codeforces ELO at $0.55/M tokens.
Best Scientific Research & Vision Reasoning
75.2% GPQA Diamond and native multimodal schematic reasoning.
Best for Enterprise Privacy & Self-Hosting
Permissive MIT license allows on-premise execution with zero data leakage.
Our Pick: DeepSeek-R1
DeepSeek-R1 takes the editorial crown due to matching OpenAI o1 on math and coding benchmarks while being 27x cheaper and providing complete open weights for the global developer ecosystem.
Try DeepSeek-R1Benchmark Deep Dive: AIME, MATH-500, and Codeforces
The benchmark comparisons between DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI o1 highlight a historic milestone in AI engineering:
- AIME 2024 Examination: DeepSeek-R1 achieves 79.8% Pass@1 on the 2024 American Invitational Mathematics Examination, surpassing OpenAI o1's 79.2%. When using consensus voting across 64 samples, R1 scales to 92.5%.
- MATH-500: On the comprehensive 500-problem mathematical benchmark, DeepSeek-R1 reaches 97.3%, edging out OpenAI o1's 96.4%.
- Competitive Programming (Codeforces): DeepSeek-R1 achieved a 2,029 ELO rating on Codeforces, placing it in the 96.3rd percentile of human competitive programmers globally.
- SWE-Bench Verified: On automated software issue resolution, DeepSeek-R1 scores 49.2%, virtually tied with OpenAI o1's 48.9%.
Price Disruption & Open Source Impact
The most dramatic difference between the two models is economics:
- OpenAI o1 API: Costs $15.00 per 1M input tokens and $60.00 per 1M output tokens.
- DeepSeek-R1 API: Costs $0.55 per 1M input tokens and $2.19 per 1M output tokens, with cached prefix queries priced at just $0.14.
- Self-Hosting: DeepSeek open-sourced the complete 671B model weights alongside distilled models (DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-1.5B, 7B, 14B, 32B, and Llama-70B), allowing organizations to run state-of-the-art reasoning locally on consumer and enterprise hardware.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is DeepSeek-R1 really as smart as OpenAI o1 in math and coding?▼
Yes. Verified benchmarks show DeepSeek-R1 scores 79.8% on AIME 2024 (vs 79.2% on o1), 97.3% on MATH-500 (vs 96.4% on o1), and 49.2% on SWE-Bench Verified.
How much cheaper is DeepSeek-R1 compared to OpenAI o1?▼
DeepSeek-R1 is approximately 27x cheaper. DeepSeek charges $0.55/M input and $2.19/M output, compared to OpenAI o1's $15.00/M input and $60.00/M output.
Can I run DeepSeek-R1 on my local computer?▼
Yes. The distilled versions (such as DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-7B and 14B) can run easily on local laptops using Ollama, LM Studio, or vLLM.
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