DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4
DeepSeek R1 vs Grok 4: DeepSeek R1 is cheaper by 64% on average. DeepSeek R1 from Azure AI Foundry (128,000-token context, reasoning) vs. Grok 4 from xAI (256,000-token context, 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
0256,000
400
0200,000
5,000
01,000,000
At this workload, DeepSeek R1 is 59% cheaper than Grok 4 — a savings of $1,338/month ($16,053/year).
Production recipe — Agent Command Center
strategy: cost-optimized
primary:
model: deepseek-r1
provider: azure-ai-foundry
fallback:
model: grok-4
provider: xai
shadow: { sample_rate: 0.05 } # mirror 5% of traffic to compare quality live| DeepSeek R1 | Grok 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $1.35/M | $3.00/M |
| Output price | $5.40/M | $15.00/M |
| Context window | 128,000 | 256,000 |
| Max output | 8,192 | 256,000 |
| 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.
Chatbot Arena ELOgeneral
DeepSeek R1
1,361
Grok 4
1,459
MMLU-Proreasoning⚠ different settings
DeepSeek R1
84.0%
Grok 4
86.6%