Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4.6 benchmark

Name: DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4.6 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) and Grok 4.6 (xAI) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Grok 4.6 is ahead by 234 points (1,592 vs 1,358; seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Grok 4.6 resolves 69.1% versus 65.2% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). Grok 4.6 streams faster (118 tok/s) while DeepSeek R1 is the cheaper output token ($2.5/1M). Grok 4.6 has the larger context window (500k 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 R1

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

Elo 1,358$2.5/1M out

xAI

Grok 4.6

xAI Aug 12 2026 post-training refresh of Grok 4.5. Same $2/$6 API price, 500k context, stronger agentic traces.

Elo 1,592$6/1M 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 R1 (2)vsGrok 4.6 (8)

DeepSeek R1: 2W (20%)Overall: Grok 4.6Grok 4.6: 8W (80%)

← DeepSeek R1Grok 4.6 →

Grok 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,592

Coding Elo

—vs1,568

SWE-bench

65.2%vs69.1%

LiveBench

59%vs71.4%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs84.6%

DeepSeek R1: 0WGrok 4.6: 5W

Grok 4.6 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs118 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs195 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGrok 4.6: 2W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$6/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$2/1M

Context window

64kvs500k

DeepSeek R1: 2WGrok 4.6: 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 4.6 5/6

Preference Elo

Grok 4.6

234 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Grok 4.6

56 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek R1

$3.50/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,358

EloHigh is better

1,592+17%

Code Elo

High is better

—

Code EloHigh is better

1,568

LiveBench

High is better

59%

LiveBenchHigh is better

71.4%+21%

SWE-bench

High is better

65.2%

SWE-benchHigh is better

69.1%+6%

GPQA

High is better

79.8%

GPQAHigh is better

84.6%+6%

TTFT

Low is better

420 ms

TTFTLow is better

195 ms+115%

Speed

High is better

62 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

118 tok/s+90%

In $

Low is better

+186%$0.7/1M

In $Low is better

$2/1M

Out $

Low is better

+140%$2.5/1M

Out $Low is better

$6/1M

Context

High is better

64k

ContextHigh is better

500k+681%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 61% 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 4.6$160.00 / mo

In: $70.00Out: $90.00

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek R1 is estimated to save $98.00/month ($1,176/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Grok 4.6:Pick Grok 4.6 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
DeepSeek R1:Pick DeepSeek R1 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Grok 4.6:Pick Grok 4.6 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGrok 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

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

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 4.6

Lower TTFT (195 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 4.6

Larger window (500k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4.6

Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Grok 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 4.6	Lower TTFT (195 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 4.6	Larger window (500k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4.6	Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

compareAug 12, 2026

Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

Brand hub remaps to top xAI vs top OpenAI. After Aug 12 that is Grok 4.6 vs Sol.

launchAug 12, 2026

Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

xAI’s Aug 12 2026 refresh of Grok 4.5. 500k context. The Grok vs ChatGPT hub remaps here.

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.

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-r1-vs-grok-4-6/opengraph-image for crawlers.

PNG

CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE

DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1

Elo 1,358

LiveBench59%

SWE-bench65.2%

Speed62 tok/s

Output cost$2.5/1M

xAI

Grok 4.6

Elo 1,592

LiveBench71.4%

SWE-bench69.1%

Speed118 tok/s

Output cost$6/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4.6?: Grok 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,592). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4.6?: Grok 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 69.1% vs 65.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4.6?: Grok 4.6 has the lower time-to-first-token (195 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Grok 4.6 accepts 500k 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 4.6 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 4.6 matchups →

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

DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4.6 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek R1 (2)vsGrok 4.6 (8)

DeepSeek R1: 2W (20%)Overall: Grok 4.6Grok 4.6: 8W (80%)

← DeepSeek R1Grok 4.6 →

Grok 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,592

Coding Elo

—vs1,568

SWE-bench

65.2%vs69.1%

LiveBench

59%vs71.4%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs84.6%

DeepSeek R1: 0WGrok 4.6: 5W

Grok 4.6 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs118 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs195 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGrok 4.6: 2W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$6/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$2/1M

Context window

64kvs500k

DeepSeek R1: 2WGrok 4.6: 1W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGrok 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

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

Voice / low-latency UIGrok 4.6

Lower TTFT (195 ms).

Long-document RAGGrok 4.6

Larger window (500k).

Screenshots / visionGrok 4.6

Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Grok 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (69.1%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Grok 4.6	Lower TTFT (195 ms).
Long-document RAG	Grok 4.6	Larger window (500k).
Screenshots / vision	Grok 4.6	Grok 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,592). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 69.1% vs 65.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Grok 4.6?

Grok 4.6 has the lower time-to-first-token (195 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Grok 4.6 accepts 500k 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 4.6 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 4.6

Grok 4.6

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

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 4.6

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 4.6

Grok 4.6

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Grok vs ChatGPT: price and Elo, not a personality contest

Grok 4.6 (Aug 12): post-training refresh, same $2/$6 list

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 4.6

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons