On January 20, 2025, DeepSeek released its most representative model "DeepSeek-R1". This made DeepSeek the most downloaded free app on the US iOS Apple Store and caused a sharp decline in the US financial market.
The field of artificial intelligence is advancing at an astonishing pace, with new technologies emerging every other day. ChatGPT has always been a leader in the field of artificial intelligence conversations with its extensive knowledge and excellent human-like interaction capabilities. However, DeepSeek's newly released DeepSeek-R1 model has disrupted the status quo of the artificial intelligence industry and challenged ChatGPT's dominance.
In this guide, we will compare DeepSeek vs ChatGPT in detail , covering their features, models, pros and cons, costs, and more.
DeepSeek AI Overview
DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence startup that has developed a series of open source large language models (LLMs) that can compete with advanced AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. The company has released several open source models, including DeepSeek-V1, DeepSeek-V2, and the latest DeepSeek-V3.
DeepSeek AI is designed to provide high-performance natural language processing (NLP) capabilities for a variety of application scenarios. However, the release of the R1 inference model has instantly attracted global attention to the company.
DeepSeek emphasizes openness and collaboration by open-sourcing its models, enabling developers and researchers around the world to build and innovate on its technology.
ChatGPT Overview
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It is a chatbot interface that provides access to a range of models. It uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) technology to simulate human conversations and complete various tasks related to content writing, coding, reviewing, etc.
ChatGPT has been updated several times in the past two years. It allows users to choose different GPT models, the latest of which is GPT-4o. In addition, it also supports web search, reasoning, attaching documents/images, and other functions. In short, ChatGPT has become a versatile AI assistant suitable for users in various industries.
DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT: Feature Comparison
There are some significant differences in the functionality between DeepSeek and ChatGPT. Here is a detailed feature comparison between ChatGPT and DeepSeek:
Model Architecture
The two AI models use different operating methods. DeepSeek uses a mixture of experts (MoE) approach, in which only the most relevant experts handle each task. This approach improves efficiency by activating only a portion of the billions of parameters per request, thereby optimizing performance and resource consumption.
On the other hand, ChatGPT uses a standard Transformer model architecture where all parameters participate in every task. This ensures consistency but may be less efficient than DeepSeek's adaptive MoE strategy.
Performance Capabilities
Each model has its own advantages in different fields. DeepSeek excels in technical fields (especially mathematical calculations and problem solving), achieving an accuracy rate of 90% . This makes it very efficient in solving complex problems.
In contrast, ChatGPT provides superior contextual understanding capabilities. The responses it generates are more detailed and comprehensive, and have advantages in general conversations and creative tasks.
Diversity of application scenarios
DeepSeek's technical accuracy and expert model hybrid approach make it show great potential in data analysis, programming and academic research, especially in the fields of mathematics and structured problem solving. It can also support report generation, workflow automation and financial automation.
ChatGPT is widely used in many fields due to its strong adaptability, including customer support, content creation, education, programming assistance, etc. This diverse function makes ChatGPT extremely valuable for both personal and professional needs.
Target Users
Both DeepSeek and ChatGPT are suitable for different types of users. However, DeepSeek's target users are mainly developers, business teams, and scientific researchers who need efficient AI-driven solutions. In early 2025, DeepSeek's growing user base proved its appeal as an economical alternative to traditional AI solutions, attracting users who are looking for cost-effective and high-performance AI tools.
ChatGPT serves a wider range of users, including individual users, corporate teams, educators and students. Its contextual awareness and human-like response make it the first choice in many fields.
DeepSeek R1 and ChatGPT
DeepSeek R1 is the latest open source model released and has become a hot topic in the technology community. It is a powerful reasoning model that can solve tasks that require advanced reasoning and deep problem analysis. ChatGPT is more like a general-purpose AI robot with multiple uses.
Some key differences between DeepSeek R1 and ChatGPT are as follows:
- Research and Innovation: DeepSeek R1 supports experimental AI applications in academic institutions, while ChatGPT follows a commercial development cycle.
- Ecosystem transparency: DeepSeek R1 is an open source model committed to community contributions, while ChatGPT adopts a proprietary and closed source model.
- Programming ability: DeepSeek R1 excels at programming debugging, while ChatGPT excels in code generation and explanation.
- Image generation: DeepSeek R1 cannot generate images directly, while ChatGPT supports direct image generation based on DALL-E.
- Domain expertise: DeepSeek R1’s expert model hybrid design enhances technical query responses, while ChatGPT provides more general output.
- Creative Writing: DeepSeek R1 focuses more on factual and analytical content writing, while ChatGPT prefers creative content such as narrative and poetry.
- Deployment flexibility: DeepSeek R1 supports highly customizable local deployment, while ChatGPT mainly relies on cloud services.
- Customizability: DeepSeek R1 offers rich configuration options, while ChatGPT provides standardized responses.
- Data privacy: DeepSeek R1 emphasizes transparency in data processing, while ChatGPT adopts a centralized security model.
In short, DeepSeek R1 and ChatGPT are both conversational AI platforms, but they differ significantly in terms of architecture and target applications.
Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of DeepSeek and ChatGPT
From the above comparison of DeepSeek and ChatGPT features, we can see that these two tools each have unique strengths and weaknesses.
Advantages of DeepSeek
- Optimizing performance and resource consumption through Mixture of Experts (MoE)
- Respond to complex questions with extreme accuracy
- Open source, flexible and customizable
- Supports fully localized deployment
- Excellent reasoning ability
Disadvantages of DeepSeek
- The dialogue is not detailed enough
- Affected by China’s censorship policies
- Creative writing skills are slightly lacking
Advantages of ChatGPT
- Highly adaptable and applicable across multiple fields
- Detailed and comprehensive response
- Outstanding code generation and interpretation capabilities
- Excellent performance in creativity and writing
- Supports DALL-E based image creation
- Rich in plugins and tools
Disadvantages of ChatGPT
- Closed source and expensive subscription fees
- May generate inaccurate or outdated responses
Advantages and Disadvantages Summary Table
aspect | DeepSeek | ChatGPT |
creativity | Strong reasoning ability, weak creativity | Excellence in creativity and writing |
cost | Cost-effective (open source) | Expensive (closed source, subscription required) |
Business Integration | Ideal for local deployment and resource efficiency improvement | More suitable for cloud and creative solutions |
Cost comparison: DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT
One reason for disrupting the financial market is that DeepSeek is significantly more cost-effective than other well-known AI models. DeepSeek is open source and extremely cost-friendly. In fact, the DeepSeek R1 API costs 96.4% less than ChatGPT.
Training cost: DeepSeek R1 and ChatGPT o1
Model | Training cost |
DeepSeek R1 | $6 million |
ChatGPT o1 | $100 million - $200 million |
The training cost of DeepSeek R1 is only a fraction of that of ChatGPT o1.
Cost of using the website
Model | Cost of using the website |
DeepSeek R1 | Completely free |
ChatGPT | Free to use, but premium features cost $20/month (ChatGPT Plus) |
DeepSeek R1 is completely free to use on the web or Android/iPhone, and is only charged for API integration. In contrast, ChatGPT's advanced features require a $20/month subscription fee.
Cost per million tokens
Model | Cost per million tokens | Approximate word count per million tokens | Cost per 100 million Tokens | Cost per billion tokens |
DeepSeek R1 | $0.14 | 750,000 words | $14 | $140 |
ChatGPT o1 | $7.50 | 750,000 words | $750 | $7,500 |
The cost per token of DeepSeek R1 is about 1/50 of that of ChatGPT o1. For example, if a marketing agency generates 10 million words of marketing content per month, its cost is:
- DeepSeek R1: $1.87 per month
- ChatGPT o1: $100 per month
Simply put, this allows DeepSeek R1 to significantly reduce the cost of enterprise AI applications from tens of thousands of dollars to just a few dollars.
API Cost (per million tokens)
Model | Input cost (per million) | Output cost (per million) | Total Cost |
DeepSeek (cache miss) | $0.55 | $2.19 | $2.74 |
ChatGPT (GPT-4o Turbo) | $2.50 | $10 | $12.50 |
ChatGPT o1 | $15 | $60 | $75 |
Overall, the cost of DeepSeek API is much lower than that of ChatGPT API, and can significantly help companies save costs in long-term applications.
Community Feedback and User Sentiment
DeepSeek is praised for being open source and cost-friendly, while ChatGPT is known for its broad and creative capabilities. However, the true effectiveness of a platform can be seen from community feedback and user sentiment.
Both tools are widely discussed on platforms such as Reddit and technical forums.
User sentiment towards DeepSeek
A large number of users have shown positive reactions to DeepSeek. They praise its efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
One user said on Reddit:
“I give DeepSeek R1 a problem or pain point that needs to be solved in R or Python, and it gives me exactly the answer I need. o1 provides the answer, but may miss dependencies, skip important steps, and even tend to overcomplicate the problem.”
In contrast, some users have also expressed concerns about DeepSeek's accuracy, censorship, and privacy issues. Topview analyzed 2,347 tweets to understand users' sentiment towards DeepSeek, and the results are as follows:
In short, users praise DeepSeek for its capabilities and affordability, which has helped it attract millions of users.
User sentiment towards ChatGPT
ChatGPT has been around for over two years. Users praise ChatGPT for its versatility, as it can assist with almost any task. One user review states:
“ChatGPT is different from other search engines in that it not only has memory capabilities, but also understands context and uses previous prompts, making it a powerful question-answering system. The upgraded version also allows you to attach images and videos instead of just text prompts, which is very helpful. It is a great programming companion that makes daily tasks faster and easier.”
Some users have also expressed concerns about ChatGPT’s accuracy and affordability. In addition, they question its occasional bias and the high cost of accessing its full functionality.
DeepSeek RI and ChatGPT: User Perspective
Many users compared DeepSeek and ChatGPT and shared their experiences and insights. Here are the main insights gleaned from the user experiences:
- Speed and Power: Some users say DeepSeek runs faster and handles complex reasoning tasks more efficiently. However, other users still prefer ChatGPT because it provides more concise and context-rich answers.
- Affordability: The budget-friendly nature of DeepSeek makes it very appealing, especially for individuals who find ChatGPT’s pricing structure too restrictive.
- Accuracy: Although DeepSeek has been praised for its capabilities, some users have noted that it occasionally lacks accuracy when dealing with complex or ambiguous questions.
- Misinformation problem: Like other AI models, DeepSeek sometimes generates inaccurate or misleading content.
In addition, Topview also studies users’ preferences for large language models (LLMs) by analyzing tweets. The following chart reflects user preferences:
It is clear that DeepSeek has made a huge impact in the big model industry, breaking the high model costs of US platforms and opening up new avenues for affordable AI solutions.
Frequently asked questions about ChatGPT and DeepSeek
Q1. Which one is better, DeepSeek or ChatGPT?
DeepSeek and ChatGPT each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. DeepSeek excels in reasoning ability and cost-effectiveness. ChatGPT, on the other hand, excels in creativity, writing, code generation, brainstorming, and more.
Q2. Is DeepSeek safe?
DeepSeek AI has been accused of using OpenAI’s proprietary models to create a competing AI system. Although DeepSeek has not yet responded to these allegations, they have raised widespread questions about the platform’s trustworthiness and ethical practices.
Q3. How is DeepSeek better than ChatGPT?
DeepSeek outperforms ChatGPT in some areas, such as research, summarization, fact-checking, and complex problem solving, while ChatGPT performs better in other areas such as creative brainstorming, content generation, and writing.
Final Conclusion: Which One Should You Choose?
The comparison of DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT shows that there is no clear winner. The final choice depends on your specific use case. If you need a cost-effective AI that excels in reasoning and solving complex problems, DeepSeek is your best choice. If you need a tool that excels in creativity, content generation, and writing, ChatGPT is your first choice.
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