TLDR
Choose OpenAI o1 if you need: Slightly better general knowledge, proprietary model with enterprise support, and best-in-class GPQA performance.
Choose DeepSeek R1 if you need: 27x lower cost, open source flexibility, superior mathematics performance, and strong coding capabilities.
Budget: DeepSeek R1 ($0.55/$2.19 per million tokens) is dramatically cheaper than o1 ($15/$60 per million tokens).
Performance: Near-identical reasoning capabilities. DeepSeek R1 leads in math, o1 edges ahead in general knowledge.
Overview
OpenAI released o1 on December 5, 2024, as their flagship reasoning model designed to "think before it answers." The model uses chain-of-thought reasoning to tackle complex problems in math, science, and coding.
Just six weeks later, on January 20, 2025, DeepSeek released R1, an open-source reasoning model that matches o1's performance at a fraction of the cost. Built for just $5.58 million using 2.664M H800 GPU hours, DeepSeek R1 shocked the AI community by achieving comparable results to OpenAI's billion-dollar investment.
Both models represent a new generation of AI that prioritizes reasoning over speed, spending more compute time thinking through problems before generating responses.
Basics: Model Specifications
| Feature | OpenAI o1 | DeepSeek R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Release Date | December 5, 2024 | January 20, 2025 |
| Parameters | Undisclosed | 671B total, 37B activated |
| Architecture | Undisclosed | Mixture of Experts (MoE) |
| Context Window | 128K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max Output | 32K tokens | 8K tokens |
| Modalities | Text only | Text only |
| License | Proprietary | MIT (Open Source) |
| Training Cost | $6B+ (estimated) | $5.58M |
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Pricing: Cost Comparison
| Model | Input (per 1M tokens) | Output (per 1M tokens) | Cost Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI o1 | $15.00 | $60.00 | Baseline |
| DeepSeek R1 | $0.55 | $2.19 | 27x cheaper |
For a typical reasoning task using 10,000 input tokens and generating 2,000 output tokens:
- OpenAI o1: $0.27 per request
- DeepSeek R1: $0.01 per request
DeepSeek R1 represents a massive cost advantage for high-volume reasoning tasks, making advanced AI reasoning accessible to smaller teams and individual developers.
Performance: Benchmark Comparison
Mathematical Reasoning
| Benchmark | OpenAI o1 | DeepSeek R1 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| MATH-500 | 95%+ | 97.3% | DeepSeek R1 |
| AIME 2024 | 79.2% | 79.8% | DeepSeek R1 |
DeepSeek R1 demonstrates superior mathematical reasoning, outperforming o1 on both advanced math benchmarks.
General Knowledge & Reasoning
| Benchmark | OpenAI o1 | DeepSeek R1 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU | 91.8% | 90.8% | OpenAI o1 |
| GPQA Diamond | 75.7% | 71.5% | OpenAI o1 |
| MMLU-Pro | Not disclosed | 84.0% | - |
OpenAI o1 maintains a slight edge in general knowledge and graduate-level reasoning tasks.
Coding Performance
| Benchmark | OpenAI o1 | DeepSeek R1 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Codeforces Rating | Not disclosed | 2,029 Elo | DeepSeek R1 |
| Competition Percentile | 89th percentile | 96.3rd percentile | DeepSeek R1 |
DeepSeek R1 excels in competitive programming, outperforming 96.3% of human participants on Codeforces.
Speed & Accessibility
OpenAI o1:
- Faster response times for most queries
- Requires API access (Tier 1+)
- Closed source, proprietary
DeepSeek R1:
- Slightly slower due to visible chain-of-thought reasoning
- Available via DeepSeek API, Fireworks AI, Together AI, and self-hosted
- Open source under MIT license
- Can be run locally or fine-tuned for specific use cases
When to Use Each Model
Use OpenAI o1 when you need:
- Broad general knowledge: Better MMLU and GPQA scores
- Enterprise support: Commercial SLAs and dedicated support
- Faster responses: Optimized inference for lower latency
- Privacy guarantees: Established data handling policies
Use DeepSeek R1 when you need:
- Cost efficiency: 27x cheaper for high-volume applications
- Mathematics: Superior performance on MATH-500 and AIME
- Coding tasks: Higher Codeforces rating and competition performance
- Open source flexibility: Self-hosting, fine-tuning, or customization
- Transparency: MIT license allows commercial use without restrictions
Orchestrate Multiple AI Models with Miniloop
The battle between OpenAI o1 and DeepSeek R1 highlights an important truth: no single model is perfect for every task. DeepSeek R1 excels at mathematics and coding, while o1 has an edge in general knowledge.
With Miniloop, you don't have to choose just one. Build AI workflows that orchestrate different models for different steps. Use DeepSeek R1 for complex mathematical calculations, then route to OpenAI o1 for general reasoning, or mix in Claude 3.5 Sonnet for creative tasks.
Miniloop lets you:
- Use any AI model for each step in your workflow
- Switch models mid-workflow based on task requirements
- A/B test different models to find the best performance
- Control costs by using cheaper models where appropriate
- Build reliable, repeatable AI pipelines with explicit orchestration
Stop being locked into a single AI provider. Start building multi-model workflows with Miniloop.
Sources
- OpenAI o1 - Wikipedia
- OpenAI Pricing
- DeepSeek R1 vs o1 Comparison - DataCamp
- DeepSeek R1 Performance Analysis
- DeepSeek R1 on Hugging Face
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, OpenAI o1 or DeepSeek R1?
OpenAI o1 has a slight edge in general knowledge (MMLU: 91.8% vs 90.8%) and graduate-level reasoning (GPQA: 75.7% vs 71.5%). DeepSeek R1 excels in mathematics (MATH-500: 97.3% vs 95%+) and is 27x cheaper at $0.55 per million input tokens versus $15.
Is DeepSeek R1 really as good as OpenAI o1?
Yes, DeepSeek R1 achieves comparable performance to OpenAI o1 across most reasoning benchmarks, particularly excelling in mathematics. It scores 79.8% on AIME 2024 versus o1's 79.2%, and achieves a 2,029 Elo rating on Codeforces.
How much cheaper is DeepSeek R1 compared to o1?
DeepSeek R1 is 27x cheaper than OpenAI o1. DeepSeek R1 costs $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.19 per million output tokens, while o1 costs $15 per million input tokens and $60 per million output tokens.
Is DeepSeek R1 open source?
Yes, DeepSeek R1 is fully open source under the MIT license, allowing commercial use. OpenAI o1 is proprietary and closed source.
