DeepSeek R1 vs GPT-5.4

For a typical workload (100,000 requests / mo), DeepSeek R1 costs 84% less — $146.00/mo vs $900.00/mo.

Projected monthly cost

Rows open both models in the calculator — adjust volume and token counts there.

Chain-of-thought reasoning competitive with closed flagship models on math and logic benchmarks, at open-weight pricing.

Emits long reasoning traces that inflate output token counts and cost — cap reasoning length or use a distilled variant for latency-sensitive paths.

Excellent general-purpose reasoning and broad world knowledge, with strong performance on coding, math, and multi-modal (image + file) inputs.

Output tokens are priced well above input tokens, so verbose responses dominate cost — tight max-token limits and prompt caching matter.

Vendor list rates · per-request examples assume 1,200 input + 400 output tokens.