DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: how much cheaper is DeepSeek really?
DeepSeek's entire pitch is price. The numbers are dramatic — but are you comparing like for like?
DeepSeek
DeepSeek V4 Pro
904,617
intelligence per $1
- Input / 1M
- $0.63
- Output / 1M
- $1.26
- Tokens / $1
- 904.6k
- Context
- 1.0M
ChatGPT
GPT-5.6 Sol
42,105
intelligence per $1
- Input / 1M
- $5
- Output / 1M
- $30
- Tokens / $1
- 42.1k
- Context
- 1.1M
Value verdict: on intelligence per dollar, DeepSeek currently comes out ahead — 904,617 vs 42,105. Prices move often, so recheck the calculator regularly.
The price gap
DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $0.63 input / $1.26 output per 1M tokens. GPT-5.6 Sol costs $5 / $30. On output tokens, DeepSeek is roughly 24x cheaper. DeepSeek V4 Flash drops all the way to $0.08 / $0.18.
Intelligence per dollar
Because the price is so low, DeepSeek's intelligence-per-dollar score dominates the calculator. That is a real advantage for high-volume workloads where raw throughput matters more than the last few percentage points of quality.
When to pick which
DeepSeek wins on cost per token by a landslide. OpenAI wins on ecosystem maturity and, for many teams, on output quality and tooling. If your workload is bulk and cost-sensitive, DeepSeek is hard to beat.