DeepSeek V3.5
DeepSeek · released 2025-12-01
Quality (AA Index)81
Input price$0.14
Output price$0.28
Context128K
Throughput95 tok/s
P50 latency1.5s
DeepSeek V3.5 vs Grok 3
Side-by-side pricing, capabilities, real-world cost across common scenarios, and our editorial pick.
Add a modelUp to 4 models can be compared
all prices in USD per 1M tokens
Grok 3
xAI · released 2026-02-20
Quality (AA Index)85
Input price$2.50
Output price$12.00
Context128K
Throughput95 tok/s
P50 latency1.4s
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Head-to-head specs
Green column = winner per metric| Metric | DeepSeek V3.5 | Grok 3 | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
Input price /1M tokens | $0.14 | $2.50 | DeepSeek V3.5 −94% |
Output price /1M tokens | $0.28 | $12.00 | DeepSeek V3.5 −98% |
Context window max input length | 128K | 128K | Tied |
AA Quality AA Intelligence Index (0–100) | 81 | 85 | Grok 3 +4pt |
Arena Elo LMArena human-pref Elo (800–2000) | — | — | Tied |
Throughput tokens per second | 95 | 95 | Tied |
P50 latency first token | 1.5s | 1.4s | Grok 3 −7% |
Vision multimodal | — | ||
Function calling tool use | Tied | ||
Reasoning mode chain-of-thought | — |
Monthly cost across common scenarios
Default usage assumptions| Scenario | DeepSeek V3.5 | Grok 3 |
|---|---|---|
customer support 1000K req · 600/180 tok | $134 | $3.7K |
chat with docs 300K req · 4000/300 tok | $193 | $4.1K |
code generation 500K req · 2000/500 tok | $210 | $5.5K |
voice assistant 600K req · 800/200 tok | $101 | $2.6K |
Our pick
For most workloads, choose Grok 3.
- Better overall trade-off across the metrics shown
Choose DeepSeek V3.5 instead if: Roughly GPT-4o-class quality at roughly 90% off. Tradeoff is region availability (Chinese provider) and slower output throughput than Western frontier tiers.
Read our deep analysis
Why pick? Use both with smart routing
Phase 2 · gateway with fallback chainSet Grok 3 as primary, DeepSeek V3.5 as fallback. One key, one bill, automatic failover when Grok 3 errors.
PHASE 2 PREVIEW · gateway not live yetThis endpoint does not exist yet. The gateway is in Phase 2 — what you see below is a design preview of the planned interface, not a live API. We will email subscribers when it launches.
Preview the planned API call
$ curl https://api.aipricly.com/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AIPC_KEY" \
-d '{
"routing": {
"primary": "xai/grok-3",
"fallback": ["deepseek/deepseek-v3-5"]
},
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}]
}'