TLDR
Choose DeepSeek V3 if you need: Superior coding (82.6% HumanEval, 51.6% Codeforces), best-in-class math (90.2% MATH-500), 10x lower cost ($0.27 vs $2.50), and open source flexibility (MIT license).
Choose GPT-4o if you need: Better general knowledge (88.7% MMLU), audio processing capabilities, established ecosystem, proven production reliability, and conversational versatility.
Budget: DeepSeek V3 ($0.27/$1.10 per million tokens) is 10x cheaper than GPT-4o ($2.50/$10 per million tokens).
Performance: DeepSeek V3 dominates technical domains (coding, math, reasoning). GPT-4o offers broader general knowledge and multimodal support.
Overview
DeepSeek V3, released in December 2024, is an open-source flagship model built for just $5.58 million using 2.664M H800 GPU hours. Despite its remarkably low development cost, it outperforms GPT-4o on coding, math, and reasoning benchmarks while costing 10x less to run.
GPT-4o, released on May 13, 2024, is OpenAI's versatile multimodal flagship designed for balanced performance across many domains. It supports text, vision, and audio with strong general knowledge and conversational capabilities.
This comparison highlights the open source vs closed source divide: DeepSeek V3 offers superior technical performance with MIT license freedom, while GPT-4o provides broader versatility and a mature production platform.
Basics: Model Specifications
| Feature | DeepSeek V3 | GPT-4o |
|---|---|---|
| Release Date | December 2024 | May 13, 2024 |
| Developer | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Parameters | 671B total, 37B activated | Undisclosed |
| Architecture | Mixture of Experts (MoE) | Undisclosed |
| Context Window | 128K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max Output | Not disclosed | 16K tokens |
| Knowledge Cutoff | 2024 | October 2023 |
| Modalities | Text only | Text, Vision, Audio |
| License | MIT (Open Source) | Proprietary |
| Training Cost | $5.58M | $6B+ (estimated) |
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Pricing: 10x Cost Difference
| Model | Input (per 1M tokens) | Output (per 1M tokens) | Cost Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V3 | $0.27 | $1.10 | Baseline |
| GPT-4o | $2.50 | $10.00 | 10x more expensive |
For a typical task using 100,000 input tokens and generating 15,000 output tokens:
- DeepSeek V3: $0.044 per request
- GPT-4o: $0.40 per request
DeepSeek V3's 10x cost advantage makes advanced AI accessible to smaller teams and individual developers.
Note: DeepSeek V3.2 (released 2025) is even cheaper at $0.026 per million input tokens, making it 96x cheaper than GPT-4o.
Performance: Benchmark Comparison
Coding Performance
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | GPT-4o | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| HumanEval | 82.6% | 80.5% | DeepSeek V3 |
| Codeforces | 51.6% | 23.6% | DeepSeek V3 |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 42.0% | Not disclosed | - |
DeepSeek V3 demonstrates superior coding capabilities, particularly in competitive programming where it more than doubles GPT-4o's Codeforces score.
Mathematical Reasoning
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | GPT-4o | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| MATH-500 | 90.2% | 76.6% | DeepSeek V3 |
| MATH | 90.2% | 74.6% | DeepSeek V3 |
DeepSeek V3 significantly outperforms GPT-4o on mathematical reasoning with a 14-point lead on MATH-500, demonstrating exceptional problem-solving in technical domains.
General Knowledge
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | GPT-4o | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU | 75.9% | 88.7% | GPT-4o |
| GPQA | Not disclosed | 53.6% | GPT-4o (likely) |
| MGSM | Not disclosed | 90.5% | - |
GPT-4o maintains a significant advantage in general knowledge and multidisciplinary understanding, scoring 13 points higher on MMLU.
Open Source vs Proprietary
DeepSeek V3 (MIT License):
- ✓ Full source code access
- ✓ Self-hosting on your infrastructure
- ✓ Fine-tuning for specific domains
- ✓ Commercial use without restrictions
- ✓ No vendor lock-in
- ✓ Modify architecture and training
GPT-4o (Proprietary):
- ✗ Closed source, API-only access
- ✗ No self-hosting
- ✗ Limited customization
- ✗ Subject to OpenAI's terms
- ✗ Vendor dependency
- ✗ No architecture access
DeepSeek V3's MIT license provides unprecedented freedom for enterprise and research use.
Training Efficiency
DeepSeek V3:
- Training cost: $5.58 million
- GPU hours: 2.664M H800
- Tokens trained: 14.8 trillion
- Cost per parameter: Extremely low
GPT-4o:
- Training cost: $6+ billion (estimated)
- Training details: Not disclosed
- Represents 1000x higher investment
DeepSeek V3 proves that exceptional AI performance doesn't require billion-dollar budgets, democratizing advanced model development.
Competition-Level Performance
DeepSeek V3 achieved gold medal performance in 2025:
- International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)
- Chinese Mathematical Olympiad (CMO)
- International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC)
- International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)
These achievements demonstrate DeepSeek V3's mastery across competitive math and programming domains.
Modality Support
DeepSeek V3:
- Text ✓
- Vision ✗
- Audio ✗
- Video ✗
GPT-4o:
- Text ✓
- Vision ✓
- Audio ✓
- Video ✗
GPT-4o's multimodal capabilities give it significant advantages for vision and audio applications. DeepSeek V3 is text-only but excels within that domain.
When to Use Each Model
Use DeepSeek V3 when you need:
- Superior coding: 82.6% HumanEval, 51.6% Codeforces
- Exceptional math: 90.2% MATH-500 (14 points ahead of GPT-4o)
- Cost efficiency: 10x cheaper for production workloads
- Open source freedom: Self-hosting, fine-tuning, commercial use
- Technical domains: Reasoning, math, programming, science
- No vendor lock-in: MIT license without restrictions
- Competition-level performance: Gold medals in IMO, ICPC, IOI
Use GPT-4o when you need:
- General knowledge: 88.7% MMLU (13 points ahead)
- Audio capabilities: Native audio input and output
- Vision tasks: Image understanding and analysis
- Conversational AI: Better broad knowledge for chat
- Proven ecosystem: Extensive integrations and tools
- Production reliability: Mature platform since May 2024
- Established support: OpenAI enterprise SLAs
Use Case Recommendations
Technical Applications → DeepSeek V3:
- Software development and code generation
- Mathematical problem solving
- Scientific computing and research
- Competitive programming
- Technical documentation
- Algorithm development
General Applications → GPT-4o:
- Customer service chatbots
- Content creation and writing
- Multimodal applications (vision + audio)
- General knowledge Q&A
- Conversational assistants
- Document understanding with images
Self-Hosting vs API
DeepSeek V3 enables self-hosting:
- Deploy on your own infrastructure
- Complete data privacy and control
- No API rate limits or quotas
- Customize for your specific needs
- One-time setup cost vs ongoing API fees
GPT-4o requires API access:
- Managed service with SLAs
- No infrastructure management
- Pay-per-use pricing model
- Automatic updates and improvements
- Subject to OpenAI's policies
Availability & Access
DeepSeek V3:
- DeepSeek API
- Self-hosted deployment
- Hugging Face
- Third-party providers (Fireworks AI, Together AI)
- Available for download (MIT license)
GPT-4o:
- OpenAI API
- Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service
- ChatGPT Plus and Team plans
Orchestrate DeepSeek V3 and GPT-4o with Miniloop
DeepSeek V3 and GPT-4o aren't competitors. They're complementary models with different strengths. DeepSeek excels at technical tasks with open source freedom, while GPT-4o offers broader knowledge with multimodal support.
With Miniloop, you can build AI workflows that leverage both models strategically. Route coding and math problems to DeepSeek V3's superior benchmarks at 10x lower cost, then use GPT-4o for general knowledge queries and audio processing.
Miniloop lets you:
- Use DeepSeek V3 for technical tasks (10x cost savings)
- Route general knowledge queries to GPT-4o's stronger MMLU
- Combine open source flexibility with proprietary capabilities
- A/B test different models on your specific workloads
- Build hybrid pipelines optimized for cost and performance
- Switch between models based on task requirements
Stop choosing between open source and proprietary. Start building multi-model workflows with Miniloop.
Sources
- DeepSeek V3 vs GPT-4o Architecture - Novita AI
- DeepSeek V3 vs GPT-4o Comparison - Analytics Vidhya
- DeepSeek V3 Performance - Skywork AI
- DeepSeek V3 Release - Helicone
- GPT-4o Benchmarks - OpenAI
Frequently Asked Questions
Is DeepSeek V3 better than GPT-4o?
DeepSeek V3 outperforms GPT-4o in coding (82.6% vs 80.5% HumanEval, 51.6% vs 23.6% Codeforces), mathematics (90.2% vs 76.6% MATH-500), and cost (10x cheaper). GPT-4o has better general knowledge (88.7% vs 75.9% MMLU) and audio capabilities.
How much cheaper is DeepSeek V3 than GPT-4o?
DeepSeek V3 costs $0.27 per million input tokens vs GPT-4o's $2.50, making it approximately 10x cheaper. DeepSeek V3.2 is even cheaper at $0.026 per million tokens, or 96x cheaper than GPT-4o.
Is DeepSeek V3 open source?
Yes, DeepSeek V3 is fully open source under the MIT license, allowing commercial use, self-hosting, and fine-tuning. GPT-4o is proprietary and closed source from OpenAI.
Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V3 or GPT-4o?
DeepSeek V3 is better for coding with 82.6% on HumanEval vs GPT-4o's 80.5%, and dramatically better competitive programming (51.6% vs 23.6% Codeforces). DeepSeek V3 excels at technical domains.
