# OpenAI vs DeepSeek

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/openai-vs-deepseek/

Every value below is read from OpenAI's and DeepSeek's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | OpenAI | DeepSeek |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Per million tokens, with a second rate above the short-context threshold — long-context input and output cost roughly double. Batch, Flex, Fast and standard tiers are priced separately, and regional processing adds a 10% uplift on models released from March 2026. | Per million tokens, with every rate doubling at peak: off-peak is half price, and peak is 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC on weekdays. Cache hits are priced roughly 30x below cache misses. |
| Input price, top model | $10 per million input tokens for gpt-6-astra at short context, rising to $20 above the short-context threshold. gpt-5.6-sol is $4 and gpt-5.6-terra $2. | $1.32 per million input tokens for deepseek-v4-pro at peak on a cache miss, halving to $0.66 off-peak. A cache hit is $0.044 peak. |
| Output price, top model | $50 per million output tokens for gpt-6-astra at short context, $75 at long context. | $3.96 per million output tokens for deepseek-v4-pro at peak, $1.98 off-peak. |
| Input price, cheapest model | $0.20 per million input tokens for gpt-5.6-luna at short context, with output at $1.20. | $0.44 per million input tokens for deepseek-v4-flash at peak on a cache miss, $0.22 off-peak, with output at $1.32 peak. |
| Context window | 1,050,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra, of which at most 922,000 may be input. | 1M tokens on every model in the current line. |
| Max output tokens | 128,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra. | 384K tokens maximum. |
| Prompt caching | Supported | Supported |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- OpenAI: Per million tokens, with a second rate above the short-context threshold — long-context input and output cost roughly double. Batch, Flex, Fast and standard tiers are priced separately, and regional processing adds a 10% uplift on models released from March 2026. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing))
- DeepSeek: Per million tokens, with every rate doubling at peak: off-peak is half price, and peak is 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC on weekdays. Cache hits are priced roughly 30x below cache misses. ([source](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing))

### Input price, top model

- OpenAI: $10 per million input tokens for gpt-6-astra at short context, rising to $20 above the short-context threshold. gpt-5.6-sol is $4 and gpt-5.6-terra $2. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing))
- DeepSeek: $1.32 per million input tokens for deepseek-v4-pro at peak on a cache miss, halving to $0.66 off-peak. A cache hit is $0.044 peak. ([source](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing))

### Output price, top model

- OpenAI: $50 per million output tokens for gpt-6-astra at short context, $75 at long context. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing))
- DeepSeek: $3.96 per million output tokens for deepseek-v4-pro at peak, $1.98 off-peak. ([source](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing))

### Input price, cheapest model

- OpenAI: $0.20 per million input tokens for gpt-5.6-luna at short context, with output at $1.20. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/pricing))
- DeepSeek: $0.44 per million input tokens for deepseek-v4-flash at peak on a cache miss, $0.22 off-peak, with output at $1.32 peak. ([source](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing))

### Context window

- OpenAI: 1,050,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra, of which at most 922,000 may be input. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-6-astra))
- DeepSeek: 1M tokens on every model in the current line. ([source](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing))

### Max output tokens

- OpenAI: 128,000 tokens on gpt-6-astra. ([source](https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-6-astra))
- DeepSeek: 384K tokens maximum. ([source](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick OpenAI if Work that fits inside the short-context rate, where the cheapest tier is $0.20 per million input tokens and the batch tier halves everything above it.

Pick DeepSeek if Batch-shaped work that can run outside weekday mornings UTC, where off-peak halves an already low rate and a cache hit costs about 3% of a cache miss.

Consider something else: OpenAI — Long prompts cross into the long-context rate and roughly double the bill, which is a cliff the flat-rate vendors do not have.

Consider something else: DeepSeek — Capacity is expressed as concurrent requests rather than tokens per minute, which is a different thing to plan against, and the peak window lands on European working hours.

## Documented by only one

- Batch discount: OpenAI: 50% off input and output through the Batch API: gpt-6-astra falls from $10/$50 to $5/$25 at short context.
- Rate limits: DeepSeek: Concurrency rather than requests per minute: 500 concurrent requests on deepseek-v4-pro and 2,500 on deepseek-v4-flash, per account rather than per key. Exceeding it returns HTTP 429, and expansion is free on request.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose OpenAI or DeepSeek?**

Pick OpenAI if Work that fits inside the short-context rate, where the cheapest tier is $0.20 per million input tokens and the batch tier halves everything above it.
Pick DeepSeek if Batch-shaped work that can run outside weekday mornings UTC, where off-peak halves an already low rate and a cache hit costs about 3% of a cache miss.