Model comparison

DeepSeek-R1 vs GPT-4.1 nano

DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 nano costs 5.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 32 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-R1 DeepSeek

42.3

Rank #115 Confirmed

GPT-4.1 nano OpenAI

27.9

Rank #327 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 32 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-R1 scores higher in 9 categories and GPT-4.1 nano in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where DeepSeek-R1 leads 44.5 to 21.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Aider Polyglot: 71.4% for DeepSeek-R1 and 8.9% for GPT-4.1 nano.
  • GPT-4.1 nano is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $2.15 for DeepSeek-R1.
  • GPT-4.1 nano accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 164K.

Side by side

DeepSeek-R1 and GPT-4.1 nano specifications
DeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
ProviderDeepSeekOpenAI
Noometry Index42.327.9
Released2025-01-202025-04-14
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window164K1.05M
Max output64K33K
Input $ / M tokens$0.50$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$2.15$0.40
Results tracked5238

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 46.3 (#68), GPT-4.1 nano: 24.1 (#330)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
Aider Polyglot71.4%8.9%
SciCode35.7%25.9%
WeirdML41.6%19%
LMArena Coding14271306
LiveBench Coding66.7%—
ALE-Bench804.12—
AlgoTune1.7—

Agentic & Tool Use DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 30.7 (#75), GPT-4.1 nano: 26.5 (#104)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—33%
DeepResearch Bench35.1%—
BALROG34.9%—
METR Time Horizons53.8%—

Reasoning DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 18.6 (#278), GPT-4.1 nano: 8.5 (#349)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
ARC-AGI-21.3%0%
Kagi LLM Benchmark69.4%33.3%
ARC-AGI-121.2%0%
CritPt1.1%0%
LMArena Hard Prompts14161286
Epoch Capabilities Index141.29129.62
SimpleBench40.8%—
LiveBench Reasoning83.2%—
DTBench—52.5%
LiveBench Data Analysis69.8%—
LMCA—5.5%
ForecastBench60—
LiveBench71.6%—

Math DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 43.8 (#79), GPT-4.1 nano: 26.9 (#252)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202566.4%28.9%
Omni-MATH42.4%36.7%
LMArena Math14001274
MATH Level 596.6%70%
LiveBench Math80.7%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—1%

Knowledge DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 44.5 (#87), GPT-4.1 nano: 21.8 (#273)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
GPQA Diamond76.3%48.9%
MMLU-Pro79.3%55%
GPQA (HELM)66.6%50.7%
LMArena Expert13941272
SimpleQA Verified—6%
Confabulations12.7%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate11.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

DeepSeek-R1: —, GPT-4.1 nano: 29.2 (#113)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
LMArena Vision—1063

Multilingual DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 52.4 (#85), GPT-4.1 nano: 41.6 (#205)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
LMArena Non-English14121260
LMArena Chinese14421270
LMArena German14041288
LMArena Japanese13911198
LMArena Russian14231261
LMArena French1417—
LMArena Korean1360—
LMArena Spanish1411—

Instruction Following DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 72.0 (#143), GPT-4.1 nano: 67.8 (#193)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
IFEval78.4%84.3%
LMArena Instruction Following13821267
LiveBench Instruction Following80.5%—

Long Context DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 45.4 (#36), GPT-4.1 nano: 23.7 (#296)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
Fiction.LiveBench75%25%
LMArena Longer Query13911283

Writing & Preference DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 61.4 (#88), GPT-4.1 nano: 40.5 (#243)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1GPT-4.1 nano
LMArena Text14281285
LMArena Creative Writing14051260
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1500946
WildBench82.8%81.2%
LMArena Multi-Turn14051277
Short-Story Creative Writing83%—
LiveBench Language48.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-R1 better than GPT-4.1 nano?

DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 nano costs 5.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1 or GPT-4.1 nano?

GPT-4.1 nano is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-R1 lists at $0.50 and $2.15.

Is DeepSeek-R1 or GPT-4.1 nano better for coding?

DeepSeek-R1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 46.3 versus 24.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 nano does, with 1.05M tokens against 164K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-R1 and GPT-4.1 nano share?

32 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-R1 has 52 scored results on Noometry and GPT-4.1 nano has 38.

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