DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek v3.2
DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek v3.2: DeepSeek v3.2 is cheaper by 69% on average. DeepSeek R1 from Azure AI Foundry (128,000-token context, reasoning) vs. DeepSeek v3.2 from Azure AI Foundry (163,840-token context, reasoning, tool calls). Use Agent Command Center to A/B both in shadow mode and pick the winner per workload.
Side-by-side cost
Live workload comparison
Same workload run through both models. The cheaper one is highlighted.
3,000
0163,840
400
0163,840
5,000
01,000,000
At this workload, DeepSeek v3.2 is 61% cheaper than DeepSeek R1 — a savings of $578/month ($6,936/year).
Production recipe — Agent Command Center
strategy: cost-optimized
primary:
model: deepseek-v3-2
provider: azure-ai-foundry
fallback:
model: deepseek-r1
provider: azure-ai-foundry
shadow: { sample_rate: 0.05 } # mirror 5% of traffic to compare quality live| DeepSeek R1 | DeepSeek v3.2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $1.35/M | $0.580/M |
| Output price | $5.40/M | $1.68/M |
| Context window | 128,000 | 163,840 |
| Max output | 8,192 | 163,840 |
| Function calling | — | ✓ |
| Vision | — | — |
| Audio input | — | — |
| Reasoning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Prompt caching | — | ✓ |
| Structured output | — | — |
| Pricing verified | May 12, 2026 | May 12, 2026 |
Benchmark comparison
Side-by-side public benchmark scores. Greener bar = winner.
MMLU-Proreasoning⚠ different settings
DeepSeek R1
84.0%
DeepSeek v3.2
80.0%