DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat vs Grok 3 Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat and Grok 3 Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 3 Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat
DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is a multimodal model from DeepSeek. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $5.80 per million input tokens and $26.43 per million output tokens, and averages 82.5 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.80 / 1M
- Output
- $26.43 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 82.5
- 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-V3.2 Chat | Grok 3 Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $5.80 | $16.07 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $26.43 | $74.65 | A |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 200,000 | A |
| Max output | 8,192 | 16,384 | B |
| Average score | 82.5 | 82.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1462.2 | 1448.0 | A |
| Open weights | Yes | No | A |
Benchmark comparison
DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat wins 5, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 6, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat | Grok 3 Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 82.5 | 84.5 | 2.0 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.0 | 77.3 | 0.7 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat |
| SWE-bench Verified | 69.6 | 74.0 | 4.4 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 87.9 | 88.5 | 0.6 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| MATH-500 | 90.2 | 90.2 | 0.0 | Tie |
| AIME 2025 | 81.0 | 78.2 | 2.8 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat |
| LiveCodeBench | 77.9 | 76.5 | 1.4 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat |
| IFEval | 88.6 | 90.2 | 1.6 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| TruthfulQA | 86.3 | 83.4 | 2.9 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat |
| HellaSwag | 89.2 | 89.7 | 0.5 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| MMMU | 76.0 | 79.4 | 3.4 | Grok 3 Reasoning |
| Arena Elo | 1462.2 | 1448.0 | 14.2 | DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat costs about $10.96 per million tokens and Grok 3 Reasoning costs about $30.72. DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is roughly 64% cheaper than Grok 3 Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 200,000 for Grok 3 Reasoning. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat wins 5, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 6, and 1 are tied. On the index average, Grok 3 Reasoning leads DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat by 0.4 points (82.9 versus 82.5).
The price picture favours DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat. The context picture favours DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat. 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-V3.2 Chat for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
- 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 16,384-token output limit.
FAQ
Is DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat better than Grok 3 Reasoning?
On the index average, Grok 3 Reasoning leads DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat by 0.4 points (82.9 versus 82.5). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat wins 5 benchmarks, Grok 3 Reasoning wins 6.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat or Grok 3 Reasoning?
DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $10.96 per million tokens, versus $30.72 for Grok 3 Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. Grok 3 Reasoning has 200,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat 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-V3.2 Chat for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.