DeepSeek R1 Zero vs GPT-4o mini Comparison

Comparing DeepSeek R1 Zero and GPT-4o mini across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

DeepSeek R1 Zero outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while GPT-4o mini is better at 0 benchmarks.

DeepSeek R1 Zero significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Mar 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Cost data unavailable.

Lowest available price from all providers
Mon Mar 16 2026 • llm-stats.com
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Zero
Input tokens$0.00
Output tokens$0.00
Best providerUnknown Organization
OpenAI
GPT-4o mini
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.60
Best providerAzure
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Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only GPT-4o mini specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only GPT-4o mini specifies output context (16,384 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Zero
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
OpenAI
GPT-4o mini
Input128,000 tokens
Output16,384 tokens
Mon Mar 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

GPT-4o mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Zero does not.

GPT-4o mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

DeepSeek R1 Zero

Text
Images
Audio
Video

GPT-4o mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Zero is licensed under MIT, while GPT-4o mini uses a proprietary license.

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

DeepSeek R1 Zero

MIT

Open weights

GPT-4o mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Zero was released on 2025-01-20, while GPT-4o mini was released on 2024-07-18.

DeepSeek R1 Zero is 6 months newer than GPT-4o mini.

DeepSeek R1 Zero

Jan 20, 2025

1.2 years ago

6mo newer
GPT-4o mini

Jul 18, 2024

1.7 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

GPT-4o mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while DeepSeek R1 Zero's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm GPT-4o mini's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Zero's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Zero

GPT-4o mini

Oct 2023

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Has open weights
Higher GPQA score (73.3% vs 40.2%)
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Zero
OpenAI
GPT-4o mini