DeepSeek R1 vs OpenAI o3
R1 free if self-hosted; o3 posts stronger benchmarks at high effort.
DeepSeek R1
The open-weights reasoning model that printed an industry shockwave. Trained at a fraction of frontier-lab costs.
Use this when
Cost-sensitive reasoning, self-hosting required, open-weights needed.
Full profile →OpenAI o3
OpenAI's peak reasoning model before GPT-5. AIME, ARC-AGI, and SWE-bench records at release.
Use this when
Maximum reasoning quality, production without self-hosting overhead.
Full profile →Cost comparison
R1 free self-hosted (~$2/M via API); o3 $10-$40/M by effort.