DeepSeek R1 vs GPT-4o: Benchmark Comparison 2026

DeepSeek R1 is a reasoning-focused model that competes directly with GPT-4o — but costs 91% less. Here's how they compare.

Benchmark Comparison

When R1 Wins

• Math and logic problems — R1 uses chain-of-thought reasoning
• Scientific reasoning — GPQA benchmark shows 18% lead
• Budget-sensitive applications — 91% cost savings

When GPT-4o/5.4 Wins

• General knowledge (MMLU) — slightly better world knowledge
• Multimodal tasks — GPT has better image understanding
• Latest information — GPT-5 has more recent training data

Try Both Through One API

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.aipower.me/v1", api_key="YOUR_KEY")

# DeepSeek R1 — reasoning
r1 = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek/deepseek-reasoner",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Prove that sqrt(2) is irrational"}],
)

# GPT-5 — general
gpt = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="openai/gpt-5",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Prove that sqrt(2) is irrational"}],
)

Compare them yourself with 10 free API calls at aipower.me.