Recently, a new AI model called DeepSeek R1 has been making waves in the AI world. What started as a side project to “put the mining GPUs to work” has turned into a massive success. DeepSeek’s R1 performs on par with OpenAI’s top-tier o1 model but does so with just 3% of the cost. No points for guessing it came out of China.
In fact, DeepSeek is currently the #1 app on the App Store, and its popularity has affected the stock prices of many U.S. AI companies, including Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta. Most notably, Nvidia saw its stock price drop nearly 17%.
So what makes DeepSeek’s R1 model better than OpenAI’s o1 model? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
1. Free to Use
First off, DeepSeek R1 is completely free to use and open source. It’s a reasoning model, meaning it takes time to analyze its own answers and reason to solve problems and provide answers, unlike general-purpose AI models. These reasoning models are generally expensive to run. DeepSeek’s R1 is completely free to use but there is more. You can install and run it locally on your machine too.
In contrast, OpenAI’s o1 Model is available only to ChatGPT Plus, with higher tiers reaching up to $200 per month. However, in response to the competition from DeepSeek, OpenAI announced that their new o3-mini model would be available to free users.
2. Open-Source
DeepSeek R1 is a fully open-source model licensed under MIT. This means users can access the code, modify it, and build custom solutions on top of it. The open-source nature of the model enables everyone to understand how it works. Additionally, people can download and run the model on their own devices or servers, which enhances privacy and control.
In contrast, OpenAI’s o1 model is proprietary. As a result, users cannot view the underlying processes, understand how the model functions, or fully verify its privacy and security claims.
3. Generous Usage Limits
With a $20 Plus subscription, OpenAI offers only 50 messages per week with the o1 model unless you’re on their Pro plan. DeepSeek, on the other hand, provides a generous 50 messages per day—completely free. All you need to do is download their app or visit their website to start using it.
4. Smaller Models Can Even Run on Your Laptop
While you get 50 messages per day on their website, you can remove that limit by downloading the model to your laptop. Then you get unlimited messages.
DeepSeek R1 offers smaller, distilled models. One of them is the 1.5B model – a lightweight model that can run easily on your laptop or system. Imagine having an advanced AI reasoning model on your personal device. This means you can run it offline without the internet. No need to worry about privacy and you can even customize it to your needs if you choose.
5. Can Access Internet with Reasoning Model
Both OpenAI and DeepSeek offer a reasoning model and search feature that can fetch information from the internet. However, OpenAI can only use one at a time. That means if you are using the o1 (reasoning model), you cannot check the internet for updates. Its knowledge is limited to the training data that ends in October 2023.
DeepSeek R1’s reasoning model can access the internet. So it can fetch up-to-date information when you are interacting with it. This allows R1 to tap into current events, recent data, and real-time updates into its responses, which is not possible with the o1 model as of now.

6. Can Check the Entire Reasoning Process
Transparency is another area where DeepSeek R1 shines. The model displays its reasoning and how it arrived at the conclusion or answer step-by-step. This feature is particularly useful for debugging and understanding complex outputs. Also, the entire reasoning process is written from the DeepSeek AI model’s perspective, which is wholesome and adds a touch of personality.

OpenAI’s o1 model doesn’t offer this transparency. While it produces answers, you can’t see the thought process behind them.
7. Superior Performance in Specific Benchmarks
In terms of performance, DeepSeek R1 is comparable to the o1 model. However, in specific benchmarks—particularly math-related ones—DeepSeek R1 outperforms OpenAI’s o1. For instance, DeepSeek scored a Pass@1 rate of 97.3% on MATH-500 compared to OpenAI’s 96.4%. It also achieved higher scores on the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), scoring 79.8 compared to OpenAI’s 78.2.
DeepSeek is also highly competitive in logical reasoning and coding tasks. While OpenAI’s o1 excels in broader applications, DeepSeek’s targeted strengths make it a better option for math-heavy and logic-driven tasks.

8. Cost Efficient for Developers
For developers, DeepSeek R1 is incredibly cost-efficient. Its API costs are 90-95% cheaper than OpenAI’s. For instance, processing 1 million input and output tokens combined costs about $2.74 on DeepSeek, compared to $75 on OpenAI’s o1. Combine this affordability with its open-source nature, and you’ve got an AI tool that’s not just effective but also budget-friendly.
9. Efficient Training Methodology
While this might not directly impact users, it’s worth noting that DeepSeek’s training was incredibly efficient. Using a Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, it activates only 37 billion parameters during inference, despite the model containing 671 billion parameters overall. This approach reduced hardware demands and training costs. This is one of the major reasons why Nvidia’s stock prices are down, as DeepSeek is showing the world that massive server power is not necessary to run a good AI model. You can do it for a fraction of the cost, something that is China’s USP.
DeepSeek R1 > OpenAI o1
DeepSeek, despite being free and open-source, is also efficient, offers more functionality, more generous message limits, better performance in several tasks, and even shows its entire reasoning process.
Not just in theory—we’ve also tested both models in real-world usage, and DeepSeek R1 outperformed OpenAI’s o1 in our testing.