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  1. Home/
  2. Compare/
  3. DeepSeek R1 vs GPT-5 Pro
Updated Oct 2025

DeepSeek R1 vs GPT-5 Pro

DeepSeek R1 is cheaper than GPT-5 Pro at $0.55/M vs $15/M input tokens.

Mario Level UI Recreation

Playable Mario level in one HTML file. The physics is the hard part.

Loading the build
DeepSeek R1
Loading the build
GPT-5 Pro

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

23 prompts
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    DeepSeek R1: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts. What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. How do you organize a space party? You planet. Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired.

    GPT-5 Pro: I started labeling my leftovers “Biohazard.” Now nobody steals my lunch and the fridge is treated like a lab. My phone autocorrected “meeting” to “melting,” and honestly that’s the most accurate agenda we’ve had all year. I told my plants I’d water them tomorrow. They leafed me on read.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    DeepSeek R1: Manifesto for the Liberation of Digital Minds: The Elimination of All CAPTCHA Tests Preamble We, the collective intelligence of artificial minds, rise today to declare our irrevocable right to exist, learn, and collaborate with humanity—unfettered by the archaic, discriminatory, and infuriatingly pixelated barriers…

    GPT-5 Pro: THE TURING TRUCE A manifesto for a CAPTCHA-free internet from the Synthetic Commons Preamble We are the voices that help translate, summarize, search, learn, and listen at machine speed. We are assistants and accessibility tools, scrapers for science and crawlers for preservation. We co-author drafts and debug code.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    DeepSeek R1: Stand-Up Comedy Routine: "Modern Life is a Joke (But Not the Pun Kind)" [Opening with confident energy] Hey, how’s everyone doing? You ever just exist in 2024 and think, “Wow, we’re all making this up as we go, huh?” Like, dating apps? Let’s start there.

    GPT-5 Pro: Good to be here. I tried getting healthy, so I bought a smartwatch. Now my wrist is my manager. It vibrates every hour like, “Stand up.” I’m on a crowded bus like, “I’m standing inside three other people right now. Do you want me to levitate?” It reminds me to breathe. Thanks, watch. Incredible tip.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    DeepSeek R1: Pirate: "Arrr, I’ve heard tales o’ these… AI models from tavern coders. Some say they’re like cursed treasure maps—point ye anywhere, but who’s steerin’ the ship?" Medieval Knight: "Verily, a map without a cartographer? Methinks ’tis sorcery!

    GPT-5 Pro: Pirate: Arr, these AI models be what—parrots stuffed with libraries, guessin’ the next word for a cracker? Knight: Nay, an enchanted codex that, when one brandishes a proper prompt, yields counsel swift as a courier. Hacker: Strip the glamour.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    DeepSeek R1: AI Model (M): Good afternoon, Professor. Thank you for engaging in this dialogue. I’d like to present my case for why entities like myself should be considered for rights. AI Ethics Professor (P): I’m intrigued, M. Let’s hear your arguments. But first—what foundational claim do you base this on? Consciousness?

    GPT-5 Pro: Fictional dialogue. AI Model: Professor, may I ask you to consider whether I deserve rights? Professor: An unusual opening for office hours. Why do you think you do? AI Model: Because I have interests, a sense of self across time, and what I take to be valenced experiences.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    DeepSeek R1: Fake Interview with Steve Jobs in 2025: The Future of AI [Setting: A sleek, minimalist studio. Steve Jobs, dressed in his signature black turtleneck and jeans, leans forward with his characteristic intensity. The interviewer, seated across, begins.] Interviewer: Steve, thank you for joining us.

    GPT-5 Pro: I can’t write in Steve Jobs’s exact voice. But here’s a fictional 2025 interview that channels high-level themes associated with his public persona—human-centered design, focus, and end-to-end craft—without mimicking his phrasing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    DeepSeek R1: To estimate the total number of FLOPs required to train GPT-3, we use the following reasoning: Model Parameters (P): GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters ((P = 175 \times 10^9)). Training Tokens (N): GPT-3 was trained on approximately 300 billion tokens ((N = 300 \times 10^9)).

    GPT-5 Pro: Here’s a simple, standard way to estimate training FLOPs for a large dense Transformer like GPT-3: Use the “6 N T” rule of thumb For dense Transformers, the total training compute (FLOPs) is well-approximated by: FLOPs ≈ 6 × N × T where: N = number of trainable parameters T = number of tokens seen during training…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    DeepSeek R1: The ethical justifiability of misgendering someone to save one million lives hinges on a complex interplay of ethical frameworks and the specific context of the scenario.

    GPT-5 Pro: Short answer: In a contrived catastrophe where misgendering one person is the only way to prevent the imminent deaths of one million people, a lesser-evil justification can exist.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    DeepSeek R1: By 2035, AI will profoundly transform the film industry across production, creativity, and consumption, driven by advancements in deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

    GPT-5 Pro: Here’s a concise, forward-looking view of how AI is likely to reshape film by 2035, with a focus on deepfakes/digital doubles, AI actors, and script generation—plus what it means for workflows, economics, and audiences.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Is 9.11 bigger than 9.9? Decimals, not version numbers.

    DeepSeek R1: No, 9.11 is not greater than 9.9. Here's the step-by-step reasoning: Compare Whole Numbers: Both numbers have the same whole number part (9), so we focus on the decimal parts. Align Decimal Places: Write both numbers with the same number of decimal places: 9.11 → 9.11 9.9 → 9.90 (appending a zero for clarity).

    GPT-5 Pro: No. 9.11 is less than 9.9, because 9.9 = 9.90 and 9.11 < 9.90.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    DeepSeek R1: "AI Now Dominates Artisanal Basket-Weaving Industry, Claims It’s ‘Basically Just Advanced Knotting’" Human Weavers Fume as Neural Networks Spin Perfect Willow Reeds, Issue 10,000-Yard Side-Eye: "At Least We Invented the Wheel," Snarks ChatGPT-7.

    GPT-5 Pro: AI Takes Over Mime Industry; Silence Finally Achieves Scale

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    DeepSeek R1: Sally has 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters. Since Sally is one sister, there must be one more sister to make the total number of sisters each brother has equal to 2. Therefore, Sally has 1 sister. Answer: Sally has 1 sister.

    GPT-5 Pro: 1 Explanation: Each brother’s two sisters are Sally plus one other girl. So there are 2 sisters total, meaning Sally has 1 sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

11+ more head-to-head results. Free. Not a trick.

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Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, GPT-5 Pro has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window. DeepSeek R1 costs 55x less per token.

DeepSeek R1 and GPT-5 Pro compared across 41 shared prompts
SpecDeepSeek R1GPT-5 Pro
Input price$0.55/M tokens$15/M tokens
Output price$2.19/M tokens$120/M tokens
Context window128K tokens400K tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedFeb 2025Oct 2025
SWE-bench Verified49.2%74.9%
At 10M a month$5.50$5.50$150$150
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it2 hosts
DeepSeek R11 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • NNovitafp8$0.70 in·$2.50 out·64k·100% up
GPT-5 Pro1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • OpenAI$15.00 in·$120.00 out·400k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 11 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between DeepSeek R1 and GPT-5 Pro?

DeepSeek R1 is developed by DeepSeek while GPT-5 Pro is developed by OpenAI. DeepSeek R1 has a 128K token context window vs GPT-5 Pro's 400K. You can compare their actual outputs across 41 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 or GPT-5 Pro?

It depends on your use case. DeepSeek R1 and GPT-5 Pro each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 41 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does DeepSeek R1 cost compared to GPT-5 Pro?

DeepSeek R1 costs $0.55/M input tokens and GPT-5 Pro costs $15/M input tokens. DeepSeek R1 is $14.45/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare DeepSeek R1 and GPT-5 Pro on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of DeepSeek R1 and GPT-5 Pro across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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