High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose o4-mini
o4-mini costs 3% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($1.93 against $1.98 per million tokens).
DeepSeek V4 Pro vs o4-mini: price, context and capabilities
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro for writing and code generation, reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), very long inputs, reasoning over long documents and the latest release. Choose o4-mini for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and images as input.
In short
- o4-mini is 3% cheaper than DeepSeek V4 Pro at the headline price ($1.93 / 1M tokens vs $1.98 / 1M tokens).
- DeepSeek V4 Pro reads more per request: 1M tokens against 200k.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro is the newer model (August 2026, against Apr 16, 2025).
- Only o4-mini offers vision, batch api.
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Writing and code generation
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro
DeepSeek V4 Pro charges $3.96 per million output tokens, against $4.40 for o4-mini. Output dominates the bill when answers are long.
Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro
DeepSeek V4 Pro charges $0.04 per million cached input tokens, against $0.28 for o4-mini.
Very long inputs
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro
DeepSeek V4 Pro reads up to 1M tokens per request, against 200k for o4-mini.
Reasoning over long documents
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro
DeepSeek V4 Pro scores 80.3% on Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR), against 61% for o4-mini.
Images as input
Choose o4-mini
o4-mini accepts images as input; DeepSeek V4 Pro does not.
Latest release
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro
DeepSeek V4 Pro is the newer release (August 2026, against Apr 16, 2025 for o4-mini).
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | DeepSeek V4 Pro | o4-mini | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $2.31 | $2.20 | o4-mini, $0.11 less |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $46.20 | $44.00 | o4-mini, $2.20 less |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $1,056 | $990.00 | o4-mini, $66.00 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | o4-mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Generally available | Deprecated |
| Headline price | $1.98 / 1M tokens | $1.93 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $1.32 / 1M tokens | $1.10 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $3.96 / 1M tokens | $4.40 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.044 / 1M tokens | $0.275 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1M | 200k |
| Max output | 384k | 100k |
| Released | August 2026 | Apr 16, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | No data | June 2024 |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Capabilities | Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API |
| API model id | deepseek-v4-pro | o4-mini |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro | o4-mini |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 92.8% | 78.4% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 41% | 16.5% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.3% | 61% |
| Intelligence Index | 36 | No data |
| SciCode | 51% | No data |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | No data | 15.2% |
| IFBench (instruction following) | No data | 68.7% |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | No data | 55.6% |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | No data | 69.2% |
Independent evaluations by Artificial Analysis, run the same way for every model, at the reasoning setting shown. Percentages unless marked as an index.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose DeepSeek V4 Pro or o4-mini?
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro for writing and code generation, reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents), very long inputs, reasoning over long documents and the latest release. Choose o4-mini for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and images as input.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 Pro or o4-mini?
o4-mini is 3% cheaper than DeepSeek V4 Pro at the headline price ($1.93 / 1M tokens vs $1.98 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4 Pro or o4-mini?
DeepSeek V4 Pro reads more per request: 1M tokens against 200k.
What is the difference between DeepSeek V4 Pro and o4-mini?
DeepSeek V4 Pro is made by DeepSeek and o4-mini by OpenAI. o4-mini is 3% cheaper than DeepSeek V4 Pro at the headline price ($1.93 / 1M tokens vs $1.98 / 1M tokens). DeepSeek V4 Pro reads more per request: 1M tokens against 200k. DeepSeek V4 Pro is the newer model (August 2026, against Apr 16, 2025). Only o4-mini offers vision, batch api.
How much do DeepSeek V4 Pro and o4-mini cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $46.20 and o4-mini costs $44.00, at standard rates.
Which is newer, DeepSeek V4 Pro or o4-mini?
DeepSeek V4 Pro was released on August 2026 and o4-mini on Apr 16, 2025.