DeepSeek R1 vs GPT-4o-mini Search Preview
DeepSeek R1 (2025) and GPT-4o-mini Search Preview (2025) are frontier reasoning models from DeepSeek and OpenAI. DeepSeek R1 ships a 128k-token context window, while GPT-4o-mini Search Preview ships a 128k-token context window. On pricing, DeepSeek R1 costs $0.10/1M input tokens versus $0.15/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
DeepSeek R1 is ~50% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for GPT-4o-mini Search Preview only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | DeepSeek R1 | GPT-4o-mini Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps and provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | RAG, Long context, and Classification |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $0.30/1M tokens | $0.60/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 14 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- DeepSeek R1 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.30/1M tokens.
- DeepSeek R1 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- DeepSeek R1 uniquely exposes Reasoning and Code execution in local model data.
- Local decision data tags DeepSeek R1 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Local decision data tags GPT-4o-mini Search Preview for RAG, Long context, and Classification.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
DeepSeek R1
$155
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Bitdeer AI
GPT-4o-mini Search Preview
$270
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $115. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- GPT-4o-mini Search Preview is $0.30/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Check replacement coverage for Reasoning and Code execution before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- DeepSeek R1 is $0.30/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- DeepSeek R1 adds Reasoning and Code execution in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-01-20 | 2025-02-26 |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Parameters | 671B, 37B Active | — |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | MITOSI-approved | Proprietary |
| Openness | Open source | Proprietary |
| Weights | Available | Not released |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-12 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | DeepSeek R1 | GPT-4o-mini Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.10/1M tokens | $0.15/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.30/1M tokens | $0.60/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | DeepSeek R1 | GPT-4o-mini Search Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-06-29. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.