DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs DeepSeek V4
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
DeepSeek R1 (0528)
67.8DeepSeek · May 2025
The open reasoning model that started it all — RL-trained chain-of-thought, MIT licensed, and a research landmark.
DeepSeek V4
DeepSeek · Mar 2026
The open-weights shock of 2026: ~81% SWE-bench Verified, a 1M context and MIT license at $0.30/$0.50 per million tokens.
The verdict
These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. DeepSeek V4 is about 2.7x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). DeepSeek V4 also takes 1M of context versus 128K for DeepSeek R1 (0528).
Specs & pricing
| DeepSeek R1 (0528) | DeepSeek V4 | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | 67.8 | — |
| Input price / 1M | $0.55 | $0.3 |
| Output price / 1M | $2.19 | $0.5 |
| Context window | 128K | 1M |
| Max output | 64K | 64K |
| Open weights | yes (MIT) | yes (MIT) |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2025 | Dec 2025 |
| Released | May 2025 | Mar 2026 |
| Example monthly cost* | $8.79 | $3.75 |
* 10M input + 1.5M output tokens per month at list prices, no caching. Green = better value on that row.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is better, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or DeepSeek V4?
- These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. DeepSeek V4 is about 2.7x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). DeepSeek V4 also takes 1M of context versus 128K for DeepSeek R1 (0528).
- Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or DeepSeek V4?
- DeepSeek R1 (0528) costs $0.55/$2.19 per million input/output tokens, while DeepSeek V4 costs $0.3/$0.5. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $8.79 versus $3.75.
- Which model is better for coding, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or DeepSeek V4?
- We don't yet track SWE-bench Verified results for both models; check their individual pages for coding-related scores.
More comparisons
DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5.5DeepSeek V4 vs GPT-5.5DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5.2DeepSeek V4 vs GPT-5.2DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5.1DeepSeek V4 vs GPT-5.1DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5DeepSeek V4 vs GPT-5DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5 miniDeepSeek V4 vs GPT-5 miniDeepSeek R1 (0528) vs OpenAI o3DeepSeek V4 vs OpenAI o3