Comparison
DeepSeek vs GPT-5 Mini: open-weight value against the budget incumbent
Can an open-weight model from DeepSeek replace GPT-5 Mini for bulk workloads? Live prices say a lot.
Editorial updated 21 Sept 2026
Source: OpenRouter (live)
DeepSeek's models are the clearest example of open weights putting price pressure on the established labs. They regularly list at a fraction of GPT-5 Mini's cost while landing in the same broad capability band for chat, summarisation and everyday coding.
The trade-offs are real but specific. Availability and rate limits vary by host, structured-output and tool-calling support depends on the route, and enterprises may have data-residency or compliance reasons to prefer a US provider. If none of those apply, the price row below is hard to argue with for background and batch work.
Use GPT-5 Mini where you need the tightest integration with the OpenAI ecosystem or the most predictable JSON output; use DeepSeek where volume dominates and you can tolerate occasional variance.
Live figures
The numbers
Best value in each row is highlighted. “Not declared” means the provider does not advertise the feature on its listing.
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input priceUSD per 1M tokens | $0.15 (best) | $0.25 |
| Output priceUSD per 1M tokens | $0.60 (best) | $2.00 |
| Blended price75% in / 25% out | $0.26 (best) | $0.69 |
| Vs. market median | 67% cheaper | 14% cheaper |
| Value rankcheapest = 1 | #96 (best) | #186 |
| Context windowtokens | 1.0M (best) | 400K |
| Max outputtokens | 384K (best) | 128K |
| Input modalities | text, image | text, image, file |
| Output modalities | text | text |
| Tool calling | Declared | Declared |
| Reasoning | Declared | Declared |
| Structured output | Declared | Declared |
| Listed on OpenRouter | 2026-09-10 (best) | 2025-08-07 |
Blended price assumes a 3:1 input-to-output token mix. Median is across all 417 priced models.
Add or swap modelsRead-out
What the numbers say
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the cheapest here at $0.26/M blended — 2.6× less than OpenAI: GPT-5 Mini.
- DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash offers the largest context window (1.0M tokens) versus 400K for OpenAI: GPT-5 Mini.
Our view
Which should you choose?
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Choose DeepSeek for bulk, batch and background workloads where cost per token is the deciding factor.
- GPT-5 Mini
- Choose GPT-5 Mini for production apps that need OpenAI's tooling, reliability guarantees and structured output.
Models
Model pages
Full pricing history, capabilities and alternatives for each model in this comparison.
DeepSeek
$0.262
/M blended
OpenAI
$0.688
/M blended
More comparisons
Other head-to-heads
- Claude vs GPT-5: which frontier model should you pay for?
Anthropic's flagship Claude against OpenAI's GPT-5 line on price, context and declared capabilities, with live figures.
- Claude Sonnet vs GPT-5 Mini: the mid-tier workhorses
The two models most production apps actually run. How the price gap compares to the capability gap.
- Gemini vs GPT-5: Google's flagship against OpenAI's
Gemini's very long context and multimodal input against GPT-5's ecosystem and pricing.
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