Compare/GPT-4.1 mini vs DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)

GPT-4.1 minivsDeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

OpenAI

GPT-4.1 mini

Input
$0.4/M
Output
$1.6/M
Speed
83 tok/s
TTFT
0.63s
DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)

Input
$0.6/M
Output
$1.7/M
Speed
TTFT

Winner by Category

Cheaper
GPT-4.1 mini
Faster (tok/s)
GPT-4.1 mini
Lower Latency
DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)
Benchmarks (2-10)
DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricGPT-4.1 miniDeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.4$0.6
Output ($/M tokens)$1.6$1.7
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
GPT-4.1 mini$0.56
DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)$0.77

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
GPT-4.1 mini
83 tok/s
DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
GPT-4.1 mini
0.63s
DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
22.927.7
Coding Index
18.529.7
Math Index
46.389.7
GPQA Diamond
66.4%77.9%
MMLU-Pro
78.1%85.1%
LiveCodeBench
48.3%78.4%
AIME 2025
46.3%89.7%
MATH-500
92.5%
Humanity's Last Exam
4.6%13.0%
SciCode
40.4%39.1%
IFBench
38.3%41.5%
TerminalBench
7.6%25.0%
GPT-4.1 mini2 wins
10 winsDeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini or DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.70/M tokens vs $0.88/M for DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning) wins 10 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 2 for GPT-4.1 mini. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

GPT-4.1 mini generates tokens faster at 83 tok/s vs 0 tok/s. However, DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (0.00s vs 0.63s).

When should I use GPT-4.1 mini vs DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: GPT-4.1 mini for lower cost, DeepSeek V3.1 (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and GPT-4.1 mini for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.