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DeepSeek V2.5 vs DeepSeek V3: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 8, 2026

⚡ Quick Answer

Compare DeepSeek V2.5 and DeepSeek V3 across pricing, benchmarks, and capabilities.

Updated: April 8, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureDeepSeek V2.5DeepSeek V3
ProviderDeepSeekDeepSeek
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.140$0.200
Output Price / 1M tokens$0.280$0.770
Context Window
128K
128K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
8,192
Arena ELO
1,200
1,280
Coding ELO
1,220
1,300
TTFT (ms)
150
220
Tokens/sec
100
85
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
When to Use DeepSeek V2.5

DeepSeek V2.5 excels at coding, general-purpose tasks.

Strengths:

  • Excellent value
  • Strong code generation
  • Good quality

Best for:

codinggeneral-purpose
When to Use DeepSeek V3

DeepSeek V3 excels at coding, general-purpose, cost-sensitive, open-source tasks.

Strengths:

  • Excellent coding performance for its price
  • Open-source and self-hostable
  • Very competitive benchmarks
  • Extremely affordable

Best for:

codinggeneral-purposecost-sensitiveopen-source

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