Model Comparison

DeepSeek R1 Zero vs o4-mini

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

DeepSeek R1 Zero outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while o4-mini is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA).

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri May 01 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
Fri May 01 2026 • llm-stats.com
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Zero
Input tokens$0.00
Output tokens$0.00
Best providerUnknown Organization
OpenAI
o4-mini
Input tokens$1.10
Output tokens$4.40
Best providerOpenAI
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only o4-mini specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only o4-mini specifies output context (100,000 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Zero
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
OpenAI
o4-mini
Input200,000 tokens
Output100,000 tokens
Fri May 01 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

o4-mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Zero does not.

o4-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

o4-mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Zero is licensed under MIT, while o4-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

o4-mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Zero was released on 2025-01-20, while o4-mini was released on 2025-04-16.

o4-mini is 3 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Zero.

DeepSeek R1 Zero

Jan 20, 2025

1.3 years ago

o4-mini

Apr 16, 2025

1.0 years ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

o4-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while DeepSeek R1 Zero's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm o4-mini's training data extends to 2024-05-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Zero's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Zero

—

o4-mini

May 2024

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

DeepSeek
Has open weights
OpenAI
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher AIME 2024 score (93.4% vs 86.7%)
Higher GPQA score (81.4% vs 73.3%)
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 Zero
OpenAIo4-mini
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Zero
OpenAI
o4-mini

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Zero vs o4-mini

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 Zero is made by DeepSeek and o4-mini is made by OpenAI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.
DeepSeek R1 Zero scores MATH-500: 95.9%, AIME 2024: 86.7%, GPQA: 73.3%, LiveCodeBench: 50.0%. o4-mini scores AIME 2024: 93.4%, AIME 2025: 92.7%, MathVista: 84.3%, MMMU: 81.6%, GPQA: 81.4%.
DeepSeek R1 Zero supports an unknown number of tokens and o4-mini supports 200K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.
Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
DeepSeek R1 Zero is developed by DeepSeek and o4-mini is developed by OpenAI.