DeepSeek, a rising AI model from China, made waves in January 2025 .

It has proven that any company can bring high-scale performance LLMs with significant cost reductions.

But how does DeepSeek compare to ChatGPT?

This article breaks down their strengths, weaknesses, and key features to help you make an informed decision.

Benchmark Comparison

According to Chatbot Arena well-know benchmarks, DeepSeek R1 rank just behind latest GPT-4o model in users preference for creative writing tasks. This means DeepSeek can produce engaging and stylistically rich content, but GPT-4o still holds a lead in overall writing style preference.

So here the battle is won by ChatGPT.

Comparison based on Samples

I’ve tried extensively DeepSeek and ChatGPT, and here’s my overall conclusion :

As you can see from the samples, DeepSeek generates writing with more personality, making the text feel natural and engaging. If you want your AI-generated content to feel more human and less robotic, DeepSeek has an edge. It follows more stricly my guidelines as well, so that my text has a more distinct voice.

However, this creativity sometimes leads to over-exaggeration or unnecessary improvisation. DeepSeek has a tendency to generate imaginative but sometimes inaccurate content. It may infer or exaggerate details, which is a drawback for fact-based writing.

ChatGPT, in contrast, provides more structured and predictable responses. While this ensures clarity and coherence, it can sometimes feel mechanical. If you prioritize accuracy and professionalism, ChatGPT remains the better choice. Its tone may lack creativity, but it excels at summarizing and refining ideas in a logical, digestible manner.

Here I’ll say it’s more a tie.

Feature Set Comparison

ChatGPT offers a broader range of capabilities, making it a more versatile tool for content marketers. Beyond standard chatbot functions, it includes:

• Web browsing for real-time information retrieval.
• Text editing for refining, restructuring, and enhancing content.
• Image and graphic generation through integrations with AI image tools.
• Document uploads for analyzing, summarizing, or extracting insights from various file types.

DeepSeek is more limited in scope in terms of functionalities:

• Web browsing for gathering recent information.
• Document uploads for summarization and data extraction.

This narrower range of capabilities means that ChatGPT definitely wins this battle.

Cost Comparison

ChatGPT offers a freemium model, allowing free access with limited features, while premium plans (ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise) unlock advanced capabilities, including GPT-4o. DeepSeek, on the other hand, remains more accessible with fewer restrictions on its free tier.

Outside of the free limited-use app, DeepSeek only provides paid API services and thus token-based pricing model, charging per million tokens processed. the latest data, DeepSeek’s official API rates are:

• Input Tokens: $0.55 per 1 million tokens
• Output Tokens: $2.19 per 1 million tokens

This pricing is significantly more affordable compared to competitors, being approximately 27 times cheaper than OpenAI’s o1 model, which is priced at :

• $15.00 per million input token
• $60.00 per million output tokens.

It’s also 4 times cheaper than the latest GPT4-o model :

• Input: $2.50 / 1M tokens
• Output : $10.00 / 1M tokens

ChatGPT also provides a tiered subscription model to cater to various user needs:

• Free Tier: Offers access to basic features at no cost, suitable for casual users.
• ChatGPT Plus: Priced at $20 per month, this plan includes benefits such as general access even during peak times, faster response times, and priority access to new features and improvements.
• ChatGPT Team: Designed for collaborative environments, this plan costs $30 per user per month on a monthly basis, or $25 per user per month with annual billing, accommodating teams of up to 149 users.
• ChatGPT Pro: Aimed at power users and researchers requiring extensive computational resources, this premium subscription is available at $200 per month, offering enhanced access to advanced AI models like GPT-4o and o1 pro mode, with minimal rate limitations.

I guess DeepSeek prevails here based on pure cost analysis, but the provided value is not necessarily the same.

Privacy Comparison

Both ChatGPT and DeepSeek process user inputs to generate responses, but their data handling policies differ. OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, offers enterprise-grade security and complies with strict data privacy regulations.

DeepSeek, while maintaining user confidentiality, lacks transparency on data usage. It also is a Chinese company reportedly close to Chinese authorities, so there might be security risks.