DeepSeek V3 vs o3 Mini
DeepSeek V3 costs 4.6x less per output token than o3 Mini ($0.9594 vs $4.40 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 6 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3 or o3 Mini: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick DeepSeek V3 for output tokens 4.6x cheaper ($0.9594 vs $4.40 per million) and work measured by SWE-bench Lite or GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 6
- DeepSeek V3 only
- 8
- o3 Mini only
- 65
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only o3 Mini has a AA Intelligence Index result, 12.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only o3 Mini has a GPQA Diamond result, 75.5%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only o3 Mini has a AIME result, 86.5%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only o3 Mini has a MMLU Pro result, 78.7%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1120.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
o3 Mini
o3 Mini takes 200K tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3
DeepSeek V3 $0.0008, o3 Mini $0.0033 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3 not benchmarked, o3 Mini not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Math, 28.1 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- OTIS Mock AIME: DeepSeek V3 48.9% against o3 Mini 76.9%, 28.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3 $0.9594 against o3 Mini $4.40 per million output tokens, 4.6x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3 takes 164K tokens, o3 Mini 200K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | DeepSeek V3 | Bars | o3 Mini | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 1 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 5 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index11
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 70.2% | 60.4% | DeepSeek V3 |
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 42.4% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Lite | 30.7% | 32.3% | o3 Mini |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 71.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 73.4% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 42.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 6.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 1.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 43.7% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Cybench | Not measured | 22.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1378 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1364 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 7.7% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 12.5 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 140.2 | Only o3 Mini measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 31.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 75.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 77.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 12.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 71.2% | 77.0% | o3 Mini |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 34.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 3.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 22.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 15.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 7.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1365 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1364 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1375 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 52.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 86.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 48.9% | 76.9% | o3 Mini |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 18.6% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 0.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 96.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1396 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1399 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 78.7% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 71.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 45.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.4% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 94.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 80.2% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 15.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1339 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1330 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1328 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1313 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1120 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1090 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1053 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1089 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1086 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1108 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 976 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 67.1% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 43.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| DTBench | 62.7% | 68.8% | o3 Mini |
| LMCA | 15.2% | 19.0% | o3 Mini |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 61.7% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1337 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1337 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1286 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1351 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1319 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1379 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1303 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1286 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1313 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1334 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1321 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1304 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1294 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1320 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1343 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1313 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1283 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3 costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | DeepSeek V3 | OpenAI o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | December 26, 2024 | January 31, 2025 |
| Context window | 164K | 200K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.2887 | $1.10 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.9594 | $4.40 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3 better than o3 Mini for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick DeepSeek V3 for output tokens 4.6x cheaper ($0.9594 vs $4.40 per million) and work measured by SWE-bench Lite or GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 or o3 Mini?
DeepSeek V3 costs $0.2887 per million input tokens and $0.9594 per million output tokens; o3 Mini costs $1.10 and $4.40. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3 or o3 Mini?
o3 Mini, with 200K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3 vs o3 Mini comparison based on?
6 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. DeepSeek V3's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and o3 Mini's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.