DeepSeek-R1 vs Grok 3 Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared DeepSeek-R1 and Grok 3 Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 3 Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
DeepSeek-R1
DeepSeek-R1 is a multimodal model from DeepSeek. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.83 per million input tokens and $25.23 per million output tokens, and averages 82.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.83 / 1M
- Output
- $25.23 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 82.8
- Open weights
- Yes
Grok 3 Reasoning
Grok 3 Reasoning is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 200,000-token context window, costs $16.07 per million input tokens and $74.65 per million output tokens, and averages 82.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $16.07 / 1M
- Output
- $74.65 / 1M
- Context
- 200,000
- Avg score
- 82.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | DeepSeek-R1 | Grok 3 Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $5.83 | $16.07 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $25.23 | $74.65 | A |
| Context window | 128,000 | 200,000 | B |
| Max output | 4,096 | 16,384 | B |
| Average score | 82.8 | 82.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1454.1 | 1448.0 | A |
| Open weights | Yes | No | A |
Benchmark comparison
DeepSeek-R1 wins 7, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-R1 | Grok 3 Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 83.8 | 84.5 | 0.7 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond | 77.8 | 77.3 | 0.5 | DeepSeek-R1 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 72.2 | 74.0 | 1.8 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 86.4 | 88.5 | 2.1 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| MATH-500 | 89.1 | 90.2 | 1.1 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| AIME 2025 | 81.1 | 78.2 | 2.9 | DeepSeek-R1 |
| LiveCodeBench | 77.4 | 76.5 | 0.9 | DeepSeek-R1 |
| IFEval | 91.0 | 90.2 | 0.8 | DeepSeek-R1 |
| TruthfulQA | 82.9 | 83.4 | 0.5 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| HellaSwag | 89.8 | 89.7 | 0.1 | DeepSeek-R1 |
| MMMU | 79.5 | 79.4 | 0.1 | DeepSeek-R1 |
| Arena Elo | 1454.1 | 1448.0 | 6.1 | DeepSeek-R1 |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, DeepSeek-R1 costs about $10.68 per million tokens and Grok 3 Reasoning costs about $30.72. DeepSeek-R1 is roughly 65% cheaper than Grok 3 Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Grok 3 Reasoning has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, DeepSeek-R1 wins 7, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Grok 3 Reasoning leads DeepSeek-R1 by 0.1 points (82.9 versus 82.8).
The price picture favours DeepSeek-R1. The context picture favours Grok 3 Reasoning. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Grok 3 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and DeepSeek-R1 for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose DeepSeek-R1 if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning.
Choose Grok 3 Reasoning if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 200,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.
FAQ
Is DeepSeek-R1 better than Grok 3 Reasoning?
On the index average, Grok 3 Reasoning leads DeepSeek-R1 by 0.1 points (82.9 versus 82.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. DeepSeek-R1 wins 7 benchmarks, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 5.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1 or Grok 3 Reasoning?
DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $10.68 per million tokens, versus $30.72 for Grok 3 Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 3 Reasoning has the larger context window at 200,000 tokens. DeepSeek-R1 has 128,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
DeepSeek-R1 is open weights; Grok 3 Reasoning is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Grok 3 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and DeepSeek-R1 for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.