Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026

DeepSeek Coder V2 vs Grok 3 benchmark

Name: DeepSeek Coder V2 vs Grok 3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek Coder V2 (DeepSeek) and Grok 3 (xAI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 17, 2026. On preference Elo, Grok 3 is ahead by 40 points (1,405 vs 1,365; lmarena (Aug 17, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, DeepSeek Coder V2 resolves 60.5% versus 51.4% (swebench (Aug 17, 2026)). Grok 3 streams faster (88 tok/s) while DeepSeek Coder V2 is the cheaper output token ($0.28/1M). Grok 3 has the larger context window (131k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

Share Analysis:

WhatsApp Telegram X / Post LinkedIn Reddit

DeepSeek

DeepSeek Coder V2

DeepSeek open-weight Mixture-of-Experts coding model supporting 338 programming languages and 128k context.

Elo 1,365$0.28/1M out

xAI

Grok 3

Previous xAI generation before Grok 4. Kept for grok 3 vs grok 4.

Elo 1,405$15/1M out

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek Coder V2 (4)vsGrok 3 (6)

DeepSeek Coder V2: 4W (40%)Overall: Grok 3Grok 3: 6W (60%)

← DeepSeek Coder V2Grok 3 →

Grok 3 (3/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,365vs1,405

Coding Elo

1,442vs—

SWE-bench

60.5%vs51.4%

LiveBench

58.6%vs60.2%

GPQA Diamond

70.2%vs74.2%

DeepSeek Coder V2: 2WGrok 3: 3W

Grok 3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

75 tok/svs88 tok/s

Time to first token

290 msvs250 ms

DeepSeek Coder V2: 0WGrok 3: 2W

DeepSeek Coder V2 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$0.28/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$0.14/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

128kvs131k

DeepSeek Coder V2: 2WGrok 3: 1W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageGrok 3 4/6

Preference Elo

Grok 3

40 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Grok 3

13 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek Coder V2

$14.72/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,365

EloHigh is better

1,405+3%

Code Elo

High is better

1,442

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

58.6%

LiveBenchHigh is better

60.2%+3%

SWE-bench

High is better

+18%60.5%

SWE-benchHigh is better

51.4%

GPQA

High is better

70.2%

GPQAHigh is better

74.2%+6%

TTFT

Low is better

290 ms

TTFTLow is better

250 ms+16%

Speed

High is better

75 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

88 tok/s+17%

In $

Low is better

+2043%$0.14/1M

In $Low is better

$3/1M

Out $

Low is better

+5257%$0.28/1M

Out $Low is better

$15/1M

Context

High is better

128k

ContextHigh is better

131k+2%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 97% with DeepSeek Coder V2

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

DeepSeek Coder V2$9.10 / mo

In: $4.90Out: $4.20

Grok 3$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek Coder V2 is estimated to save $320.90/month ($3,851/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
DeepSeek Coder V2:Pick DeepSeek Coder V2 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Grok 3:Pick Grok 3 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Grok 3:Pick Grok 3 as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek Coder V2

Higher SWE-bench (60.5%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek Coder V2

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 3

Lower TTFT (250 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 3

Larger window (131k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 3

Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek Coder V2	Higher SWE-bench (60.5%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek Coder V2	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 3	Lower TTFT (250 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 3	Larger window (131k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 3	Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Community Sentiment

Cast Your Matchup Vote

0 total votes

Community Discussions (0)

No comments posted on this matchup yet. Be the first to share an evaluation note!

Share card

The real PNG is generated at /compare/deepseek-coder-v2-vs-grok-3/opengraph-image for crawlers.

PNG

CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE

DeepSeek

DeepSeek Coder V2

Elo 1,365

LiveBench58.6%

SWE-bench60.5%

Speed75 tok/s

Output cost$0.28/1M

xAI

Grok 3

Elo 1,405

LiveBench60.2%

SWE-bench51.4%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Grok 3?: Grok 3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,405). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Grok 3?: DeepSeek Coder V2 leads SWE-bench at 60.5% vs 51.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek Coder V2 output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Grok 3?: Grok 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (250 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Grok 3 accepts 131k tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek Coder V2 is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DeepSeek Coder V2 and Grok 3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All DeepSeek Coder V2 matchups →|All Grok 3 matchups →

DeepSeek Coder V2 vs DeepSeek V3 (next deepseek)Grok 3 vs Grok 4 (next grok)DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Grok 3 Grok 4.6 vs Grok 3 DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Grok 3 DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek Coder V2

DeepSeek Coder V2 vs Grok 3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek Coder V2 (4)vsGrok 3 (6)

DeepSeek Coder V2: 4W (40%)Overall: Grok 3Grok 3: 6W (60%)

← DeepSeek Coder V2Grok 3 →

Grok 3 (3/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,365vs1,405

Coding Elo

1,442vs—

SWE-bench

60.5%vs51.4%

LiveBench

58.6%vs60.2%

GPQA Diamond

70.2%vs74.2%

DeepSeek Coder V2: 2WGrok 3: 3W

Grok 3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

75 tok/svs88 tok/s

Time to first token

290 msvs250 ms

DeepSeek Coder V2: 0WGrok 3: 2W

DeepSeek Coder V2 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$0.28/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$0.14/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

128kvs131k

DeepSeek Coder V2: 2WGrok 3: 1W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek Coder V2

Higher SWE-bench (60.5%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek Coder V2

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 3

Lower TTFT (250 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 3

Larger window (131k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 3

Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek Coder V2	Higher SWE-bench (60.5%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek Coder V2	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 3	Lower TTFT (250 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 3	Larger window (131k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 3	Grok 3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Grok 3?

Grok 3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,405). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Grok 3?

DeepSeek Coder V2 leads SWE-bench at 60.5% vs 51.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek Coder V2 output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek Coder V2 or Grok 3?

Grok 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (250 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Grok 3 accepts 131k tokens versus 128k.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek Coder V2 is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DeepSeek Coder V2 and Grok 3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.