Head-to-head · multimodal vs multimodal

DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat vs Grok 3 Turbo: which model should you choose?

We compared DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat and Grok 3 Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 3 Turbo has the stronger average benchmark score; DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.

DeepSeek

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
Full DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat page
xAI

Grok 3 Turbo

Grok 3 Turbo is a multimodal model from xAI. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $15.97 per million input tokens and $70.13 per million output tokens, and averages 83.1 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$15.97 / 1M
Output
$70.13 / 1M
Context
128,000
Avg score
83.1
Open weights
No
Full Grok 3 Turbo page

Specification comparison

SpecDeepSeek-V3.2 ChatGrok 3 TurboEdge
Input price / 1M$5.80$15.97A
Output price / 1M$26.43$70.13A
Context window1,000,000128,000A
Max output8,19265,536B
Average score82.583.1B
Arena Elo1462.21438.4A
Open weightsYesNoA

Benchmark comparison

DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat wins 5, Grok 3 Turbo wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.

BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.2 ChatGrok 3 TurboGapWinner
MMLU-Pro82.583.71.2Grok 3 Turbo
GPQA Diamond78.079.11.1Grok 3 Turbo
SWE-bench Verified69.671.41.8Grok 3 Turbo
HumanEval87.986.81.1DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat
MATH-50090.285.64.6DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat
AIME 202581.083.12.1Grok 3 Turbo
LiveCodeBench77.976.41.5DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat
IFEval88.690.72.1Grok 3 Turbo
TruthfulQA86.386.00.3DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat
HellaSwag89.290.21.0Grok 3 Turbo
MMMU76.081.35.3Grok 3 Turbo
Arena Elo1462.21438.423.8DeepSeek-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 Turbo costs about $29.51. DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is roughly 63% cheaper than Grok 3 Turbo. 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 128,000 for Grok 3 Turbo. 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 Turbo wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Grok 3 Turbo leads DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat by 0.6 points (83.1 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 Turbo 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 Turbo if

  • You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
  • You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.

FAQ

Is DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat better than Grok 3 Turbo?

On the index average, Grok 3 Turbo leads DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat by 0.6 points (83.1 versus 82.5). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat wins 5 benchmarks, Grok 3 Turbo wins 7.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat or Grok 3 Turbo?

DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $10.96 per million tokens, versus $29.51 for Grok 3 Turbo.

Which has the larger context window?

DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. Grok 3 Turbo has 128,000 tokens.

Are these models open weights?

DeepSeek-V3.2 Chat is open weights; Grok 3 Turbo is proprietary.

Which should I choose for production?

If you need a single default, start with Grok 3 Turbo 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.

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