Compare / DeepSeek V3 vs GPT-5 Nano

DeepSeek V3 vs GPT-5 Nano

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 15 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

DeepSeek V3
DeepSeek · profile
GPT-5 Nano
OpenAI · profile
Results compared
15
Shared sources
3

DeepSeek V3 or GPT-5 Nano? The short answer

  • GPT-5 Nano is cheaper: $0.14 against $0.45 per million tokens, 3.3 times less.
  • GPT-5 Nano scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 13.0 against 8.5.
  • On our business benchmarks, DeepSeek V3 ranks higher for writing and sticking to the facts.
  • On our business benchmarks, GPT-5 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.

At a glance

DeepSeek V3GPT-5 Nano
Price per million tokens$0.26 in · $1.03 out$0.050 in · $0.40 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.45$0.14
Cheapest host, blended$0.45 (StreamLake)$0.069 (OpenAI)
Intelligence Index8.513.0
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window163,840 tokens400,000 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseDeepSeek V3GPT-5 Nano
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 136 of 161 50 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 168 of 195 131 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 115 of 187 150 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 25 of 153 127 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricDeepSeek V3GPT-5 Nano
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,3501,339
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3491,247
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,3481,354
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,3431,327
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,3581,338
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,3561,289
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 8.5013.0
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 55.7%67.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 2.9%9.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 34.8%67.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 29.3%45.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 6.8%17.4%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 22.8%36.5%
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedAnswer rate% of documents 97.5%100.0%
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedHallucination rate% of summaries 6.1%10.5%

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is DeepSeek V3 better than GPT-5 Nano?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, DeepSeek V3 ranks higher for writing and sticking to the facts; GPT-5 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 or GPT-5 Nano?

GPT-5 Nano costs $0.14 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.45 for DeepSeek V3.

Run DeepSeek V3 and GPT-5 Nano on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.