Model comparison
Grok 3 vs DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B
- Input
- $3.00 / 1M tokens
- Output
- $15.00 / 1M tokens
- Context
- 131K tokens (xAI API). xAI marketed a 1M-token capability for the model.
- Released
- 2025-02-17
- Input
- $0.69 per 1M tokens
- Output
- $0.69 per 1M tokens
- Context
- 131,072 tokens (128K)
- Released
- 2025-01-20
Grok 3 scores higher on 2 of the 2 benchmarks both models report; DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B is cheaper on input tokens ($0.7 vs $3 per 1M, 4.3×); DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B has the larger context window (131K vs 131K); DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B ships open weights while Grok 3 is API-only.
Specs and pricing side by side
| Spec | Grok 3 | DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | xAI (Grok) | DeepSeek |
| Released | 2025-02-17 | 2025-01-20 |
| Context window | 131K tokens (xAI API). xAI marketed a 1M-token capability for the model. | 131,072 tokens (128K) |
| Max output | not published | 32,768 tokens (recommended max generation… |
| Input price | $3.00 / 1M tokens | $0.69 per 1M tokens |
| Output price | $15.00 / 1M tokens | $0.69 per 1M tokens |
| Parameters | not published | ~32.8B (dense) |
| License | Proprietary | MIT License (model weights). The base Qwen2.5-32B it was distilled from is originally licensed under Apache 2.0. |
| Weights | API only | Open weights |
| Modalities | Text | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | November 2024 | Inherits the Qwen2.5 base pretraining cutoff… |
Benchmarks both models report
| Benchmark | Grok 3 | DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 84.6% | 62.1% |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.4% | 57.2% |
Scores are as published by each maker or its cited source; harness, reasoning effort and date can differ between rows, so treat small gaps as ties. Sources are listed on each model page.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Grok 3 if…
- You care about GPQA Diamond, LiveCodeBench (it scores higher on 2 shared benchmarks).
- You need Text input, which DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B lacks.
- Your use case is: math and competition-style problem solving with Think mode.
Pick DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B if…
- Cost matters: input tokens cost 4.3× less ($0.7 vs $3 per 1M).
- You need the longer context (131K vs 131K).
- You want to self-host or fine-tune (open weights, MIT License (model weights). The base Qwen2.5-32B it was distilled from is originally licensed under Apache 2.0.).
- You need text input, which Grok 3 lacks.
- Your use case is: local and on-prem reasoning assistants where data cannot leave the building.
FAQ
Which is better, Grok 3 or DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B?
Grok 3 scores higher on 2 of the 2 benchmarks both models report; DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B is cheaper on input tokens ($0.7 vs $3 per 1M, 4.3×); DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B has the larger context window (131K vs 131K); DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B ships open weights while Grok 3 is API-only. The better pick depends on whether you value benchmark scores, price per token, context length or openness for your workload.
How much cheaper is DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B?
Grok 3: $3.00 / 1M tokens input, $15.00 / 1M tokens output. DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B: $0.69 per 1M tokens input, $0.69 per 1M tokens output (list API prices as published by each maker).
What are the context windows of Grok 3 and DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B?
Grok 3 offers 131K tokens (xAI API). xAI marketed a 1M-token capability for the model.; DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B offers 131,072 tokens (128K) with up to 32,768 tokens (recommended max generation length; some hosted providers cap lower) output.
Is Grok 3 newer than DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B?
Grok 3 was released 2025-02-17; DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B was released 2025-01-20.