The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

DeepSeek-R1-0528 vs MAI-Thinking-1

MAI-Thinking-1 leads the LLM Stats Score 33.0 to 24.1.

DeepSeek · Microsoft · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

MAI-Thinking-1 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 33.0 to 24.1, ranking #101 overall.

In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, MAI-Thinking-1 wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose DeepSeek-R1-0528

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose MAI-Thinking-1

  • overall performance matters — it scores 33.0 and ranks #101 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 4 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Core performance indexes
24.1
#166
33.0
#101
23.7
#162
33.8
#92
7.7
#183
19.4
#104
-11.9
#183
12.8
#97
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 4
4 of 4
Input price
$0.50 / M
— / M
Output price
$2.15 / M
— / M
Context window
163,840

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
DeepSeek-R1-0528
MAI-Thinking-1
26.2#104
33.7#53
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

16 reported for DeepSeek-R1-0528 · 23 for MAI-Thinking-1

4 shared

DeepSeek-R1-0528 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while MAI-Thinking-1 is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, SWE-Bench Verified).

MAI-Thinking-1 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Sun Sep 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

329.0B diff

MAI-Thinking-1 has 329.0B more parameters than DeepSeek-R1-0528, making it 49.0% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek-R1-0528
671.0Bparameters
Microsoft
MAI-Thinking-1
1.0Tparameters
671.0B
DeepSeek-R1-0528
1000.0B
MAI-Thinking-1

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only DeepSeek-R1-0528 specifies input context (163,840 tokens). Only DeepSeek-R1-0528 specifies output context (163,840 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek-R1-0528
Input163,840 tokens
Output163,840 tokens
Microsoft
MAI-Thinking-1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Sep 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek-R1-0528 is licensed under MIT, while MAI-Thinking-1 uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

DeepSeek-R1-0528

MIT

Open weights

MAI-Thinking-1

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek-R1-0528 was released on 2025-05-28, while MAI-Thinking-1 was released on 2026-06-02.

MAI-Thinking-1 is 12 months newer than DeepSeek-R1-0528.

DeepSeek-R1-0528

May 28, 2025

1.3 years ago

MAI-Thinking-1

Jun 2, 2026

3 months ago

1.0yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek-R1-0528 and MAI-Thinking-1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek-R1-0528
✓ Preferred
MAI-Thinking-1
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek-R1-0528 vs MAI-Thinking-1.

Which is better, DeepSeek-R1-0528 or MAI-Thinking-1?

MAI-Thinking-1 leads the LLM Stats Score 33.0 to 24.1. DeepSeek-R1-0528 is made by DeepSeek and MAI-Thinking-1 is made by Microsoft. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does DeepSeek-R1-0528 compare to MAI-Thinking-1 in benchmarks?

DeepSeek-R1-0528 scores MMLU-Redux: 93.4%, SimpleQA: 92.3%, AIME 2024: 91.4%, AIME 2025: 87.5%, MMLU-Pro: 85.0%. MAI-Thinking-1 scores LongFact: 98.0%, AIME 2025: 97.0%, AIME 2026: 94.5%, GraphWalks: 90.0%, AIR-Bench: 88.0%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek-R1-0528 and MAI-Thinking-1?

DeepSeek-R1-0528 supports 164K tokens and MAI-Thinking-1 supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek-R1-0528 and MAI-Thinking-1?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (24.1 vs 33.0), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek-R1-0528 and MAI-Thinking-1?

DeepSeek-R1-0528 is developed by DeepSeek and MAI-Thinking-1 is developed by Microsoft.