o4-mini vs DeepSeek R1
Side-by-side comparison of o4-mini (OpenAI) and DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek). Exact API pricing per million tokens, context windows, output speed, and total cost on real-world prompts.
Specifications
| Spec | o4-mini | DeepSeek R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | DeepSeek |
| Model id | o4-mini | deepseek-r1 |
| Input price (per 1M tokens) | $1.10 | $0.28 |
| Output price (per 1M tokens) | $4.40 | $0.42 |
| Context window | 200,000 | 128,000 |
| Output speed (tokens/sec) | ~80 | ~40 |
Cost on real prompts
Total cost = (input tokens × input price) + (output tokens × output price). Numbers below use the exact pricing tables published by each provider.
| Scenario | Input | Output | o4-mini | DeepSeek R1 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short question + answer | 50 | 150 | $0.000715 | $0.000077 | DeepSeek R1 |
| Code review on one file | 500 | 1,500 | $0.007150 | $0.00077 | DeepSeek R1 |
| Long document summary | 5,000 | 500 | $0.007700 | $0.001610 | DeepSeek R1 |
| Heavy reasoning task | 2,000 | 8,000 | $0.037400 | $0.003920 | DeepSeek R1 |
| Full codebase analysis | 50,000 | 10,000 | $0.099000 | $0.018200 | DeepSeek R1 |
Want the exact cost for your prompt instead of these examples? Open the cost calculator pre-loaded with both models →
When to pick which
Heuristics derived from the spec table above. Always validate on your own prompts before committing — these are starting points, not verdicts.
Pick o4-mini for
- •tasks needing a larger context window — o4-mini fits 2x more tokens than deepseek-r1
- •latency-sensitive UX (chat, autocompletion) — o4-mini streams faster (~80 vs ~40 tok/s)
Pick DeepSeek R1 for
- •output-heavy workloads — deepseek-r1 is meaningfully cheaper per output token
- •input-heavy workloads — deepseek-r1 is cheaper per input token
Switching between them
For most use cases, switching providers means updating the model id and the request shape if the providers differ. Within the same provider, it's usually a single-line change.
From o4-mini to DeepSeek R1
# Before
model = "o4-mini"
# After
model = "deepseek-r1"If the providers differ (OpenAI vs DeepSeek), you'll also need to swap the SDK / endpoint URL. Cross-provider migrations usually take 30 minutes to a few hours depending on how many features (streaming, function calling, tool use) you depend on.
Calculate cost on your own prompt
The examples above use generic input/output ratios. For an exact comparison, paste your real prompt into the calculator — it counts tokens with the right tokenizer for each model and shows side-by-side cost.
Open the calculator with both models →