Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4 benchmark

Name: DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) and Grok 4 (xAI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Grok 4 is ahead by 130 points (1,488 vs 1,358; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, DeepSeek R1 resolves 65.2% versus 58.6% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Grok 4 streams faster (98 tok/s) while DeepSeek R1 is the cheaper output token ($2.5/1M). Grok 4 has the larger context window (256k 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.

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DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1

Open-weights reasoning model trained with large-scale RL.

Elo 1,358$2.5/1M out

xAI

Grok 4

Previous xAI flagship.

Elo 1,488$15/1M out

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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 R1 (4)vsGrok 4 (5)

DeepSeek R1: 4W (44%)Overall: Grok 4Grok 4: 5W (56%)

← DeepSeek R1Grok 4 →

Tied (2/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,488

Coding Elo

—vs—

SWE-bench

65.2%vs58.6%

LiveBench

59%vs64.1%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs79%

DeepSeek R1: 2WGrok 4: 2W

Grok 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs98 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs230 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGrok 4: 2W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

64kvs256k

DeepSeek R1: 2WGrok 4: 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 4 4/6

Preference Elo

Grok 4

130 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Grok 4

36 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek R1

$12.50/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,358

EloHigh is better

1,488+10%

LiveBench

High is better

59%

LiveBenchHigh is better

64.1%+9%

SWE-bench

High is better

+11%65.2%

SWE-benchHigh is better

58.6%

GPQA

High is better

+1%79.8%

GPQAHigh is better

79%

TTFT

Low is better

420 ms

TTFTLow is better

230 ms+83%

Speed

High is better

62 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

98 tok/s+58%

In $

Low is better

+329%$0.7/1M

In $Low is better

$3/1M

Out $

Low is better

+500%$2.5/1M

Out $Low is better

$15/1M

Context

High is better

64k

ContextHigh is better

256k+300%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 81% with DeepSeek R1

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

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

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

DeepSeek R1$62.00 / mo

In: $24.50Out: $37.50

Grok 4$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek R1 is estimated to save $268.00/month ($3,216/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
DeepSeek R1:Pick DeepSeek R1 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Grok 4:Pick Grok 4 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Grok 4:Pick Grok 4 as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek R1

Higher SWE-bench (65.2%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 4

Lower TTFT (230 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 4

Larger window (256k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4

Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek R1	Higher SWE-bench (65.2%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 4	Lower TTFT (230 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 4	Larger window (256k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4	Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchJul 10, 2025

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

2025-07 row. 4.6 is the buy. We keep 4 so upgrade pairs and old inbound links resolve.

launchJan 20, 2025

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Jan 2025 reasoning model. Still searched. V4 Pro is the newer DeepSeek buy.

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LIVE

DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1

Elo 1,358

LiveBench59%

SWE-bench65.2%

Speed62 tok/s

Output cost$2.5/1M

xAI

Grok 4

Elo 1,488

LiveBench64.1%

SWE-bench58.6%

Speed98 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4?: Grok 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,488). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4?: DeepSeek R1 leads SWE-bench at 65.2% vs 58.6%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4?: Grok 4 has the lower time-to-first-token (230 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Grok 4 accepts 256k tokens versus 64k.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek R1 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 R1 and Grok 4 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All DeepSeek R1 matchups →|All Grok 4 matchups →

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

DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek R1 (4)vsGrok 4 (5)

DeepSeek R1: 4W (44%)Overall: Grok 4Grok 4: 5W (56%)

← DeepSeek R1Grok 4 →

Tied (2/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,488

Coding Elo

—vs—

SWE-bench

65.2%vs58.6%

LiveBench

59%vs64.1%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs79%

DeepSeek R1: 2WGrok 4: 2W

Grok 4 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs98 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs230 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGrok 4: 2W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

64kvs256k

DeepSeek R1: 2WGrok 4: 1W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek R1

Higher SWE-bench (65.2%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 4

Lower TTFT (230 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 4

Larger window (256k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4

Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek R1	Higher SWE-bench (65.2%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 4	Lower TTFT (230 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 4	Larger window (256k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4	Grok 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4?

Grok 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,488). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4?

DeepSeek R1 leads SWE-bench at 65.2% vs 58.6%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4?

Grok 4 has the lower time-to-first-token (230 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Grok 4 accepts 256k tokens versus 64k.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek R1 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 R1 and Grok 4 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Grok 4

Grok 4

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek R1

Grok 4

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Grok 4

Grok 4

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok 4 remains the previous xAI flagship on this catalog

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek R1

Grok 4

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons