DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek V2.5: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare DeepSeek R1 and DeepSeek V2.5 across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureDeepSeek R1DeepSeek V2.5
ProviderDeepSeekDeepSeek
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.700$0.140
Output Price / 1M tokens$2.50$0.280
Context Window
128K
128K
Max Output Tokens
8,192
4,096
Arena ELO
1,310
1,200
Coding ELO
1,330
1,220
TTFT (ms)
1,800
150
Tokens/sec
45
100
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingNoYes
VisionNoNo
When to Use DeepSeek R1

DeepSeek R1 excels at reasoning, math, coding, science tasks.

Strengths:

  • Excellent reasoning at a fraction of o3's cost
  • Open-source and self-hostable
  • Top-tier math performance
  • Very competitive with proprietary reasoning models

Best for:

reasoningmathcodingscience
When to Use DeepSeek V2.5

DeepSeek V2.5 excels at coding, general-purpose tasks.

Strengths:

  • Excellent value
  • Strong code generation
  • Good quality

Best for:

codinggeneral-purpose

Related Comparisons