DeepSeek vs. Grok-4: Full Report and Comparison (August 2025 Updated)
- Graziano Stefanelli
- Aug 6
- 17 min read
Overview and Model Lineup
DeepSeek is an open-source AI model suite from a Chinese AI firm (DeepSeek-AI) known for its Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture and community transparency. Its lineup includes:
DeepSeek R1 – The flagship “Reasoning” chat model (launched Jan 2025), fine-tuned for complex reasoning and dialogue with chain-of-thought prompting. (An updated R1-0528 version in mid-2025 further improved reasoning and reliability.)
DeepSeek-V3 – The latest base language model (third-generation) with MoE architecture (671B total parameters, ~37B active per token). R1 is based on this core model with additional reinforcement learning for reasoning.
DeepSeek-VL – A Vision-Language model for multimodal understanding, capable of analyzing images (e.g. screenshots, documents, charts, photos) alongside text. An open technical report describes a hybrid high-res vision encoder + language model design for real-world image comprehension.
DeepSeek-Coder – A series of code-specialized LLMs (1.3B–33B parameters) trained on 2 trillion tokens of code (87% code, 13% natural language). The latest DeepSeek-Coder V2 (released 2024) is a MoE model (236B total, ~21B active params) fine-tuned for coding and math; it boasts performance comparable to GPT-4 Turbo on code tasks and supports 338 programming languages with a 128K context window.
(Other variants like DeepSeek Math for specialized mathematical problem solving are also part of the ecosystem.)*
Grok is the AI model family from Elon Musk’s xAI (integrated with the X platform). It is a closed-source but rapidly evolving series of models, with a bold “witty, rebellious” personality and cutting-edge capabilities. Key iterations include:
Grok-1 – Initial model launched Nov 2023 (33B parameter base). Notably, xAI open-sourced Grok-1’s weights/architecture in early 2024, allowing community scrutiny.
Grok-1.5 – Released Mar 2024, bringing large improvements in reasoning, coding, and context length. Grok-1.5 introduced a 128K token context (16× the previous) and achieved major leaps on benchmarks: e.g. MATH 50.6%, GSM8K 90%, HumanEval 74.1% (pass@1) – up from Grok-1’s 23.9%, 62.9%, 63.2% respectively. This put Grok-1.5 near state-of-the-art, closing the gap with models like GPT-4 on math and coding tasks (GPT-4 ~61% MATH, ~95% GSM8K, ~85% HumanEval).
Grok-1.5V – Announced Apr 2024, the first multimodal vision-enabled Grok. Grok-1.5V can interpret images (documents, diagrams, photos) in addition to text. It demonstrated competitive performance to other frontier vision models (GPT-4V, Claude 3 vision, etc.), e.g. on multi-discipline visual QA (MMMU) Grok-1.5V scored 53.6% vs GPT-4V’s 56.8%, and it outperformed all peers on real-world spatial understanding (68.7% in xAI’s new RealWorldQA test, versus GPT-4V 61.4%).
Grok 2 and 3 – Intermediate upgrades in mid/late 2024 and Feb 2025. Grok 3 (Feb 2025) scaled pretraining by 10× using xAI’s Colossus supercomputer (100k+ H100 GPUs). It introduced “Think” mode (deep chain-of-thought reasoning) and “DeepSearch” tool-use, achieving an Elo of 1402 on the Chatbot Arena (first model to break 1400). Grok 3 excelled in reasoning, coding, and knowledge – “apparently the smartest LLM in the world” at launch. (For example, Grok 3 scored 79.9% on MMLU-Pro, edging out DeepSeek-V3’s 75.9%, and dominated coding challenges.)
Grok 4 – Latest flagship (July 2025). Touted by xAI as “the world’s most intelligent model,” Grok-4 pushes even further in reasoning and tool-use. It comes in two tiers: Grok 4 standard, and Grok 4 Heavy, a high-performance “multi-agent” version. Grok-4 Heavy spawns multiple reasoning agents in parallel (like a “study group”) and then aggregates their solutions for superior accuracy. Both versions were trained via massive-scale reinforcement learning on the 200k-GPU cluster, allowing Grok to “think longer at pretraining scale” and use tools natively.
Below is a feature comparison table summarizing key specs of the current top models (DeepSeek vs. Grok-4):
Performance Benchmarks (Accuracy & Quality)
Both DeepSeek and Grok are top-tier models in 2025, but Grok-4 Heavy currently holds the edge on many benchmarks, reflecting its massive training scale and multi-agent approach. Below is a comparison of benchmark scores for each (as of Aug 2025):
MMLU (academic knowledge) – DeepSeek-V3/R1 scores around the mid-70s on MMLU (e.g. 75.9% on the MMLU-Pro subset), which is on par with many Western models (Claude 2/3, etc.) but below GPT-4. Grok’s progress has been rapid: Grok-1.5 already reached 81.3% (5-shot). Grok-4 is at or above GPT-4 level; xAI hasn’t published a raw MMLU for Grok-4, but its strong performance on similar knowledge tests (see GPQA) suggests mid-80s%. In xAI’s internal “GPQA” grad-level exam, Grok-4 scored 75.4% vs. DeepSeek-V3’s 59.1%.
GSM8K (math word problems) – DeepSeek’s math performance is solid (e.g. ~89% on GSM8K for rival Qwen-2.5, which slightly outperforms DeepSeek R1 in math, implying DeepSeek R1 is somewhat lower). Grok-1.5 made a huge leap to 90% on GSM8K, and Grok-4 likely pushes this further. In fact, Grok-4 Heavy excelled at math competitions: it achieved 93.3% on the 2025 AIME contest (American Invitational Math Exam) during beta, and later an unprecedented 100% on AIME’25 with its final Heavy model (solving all problems). On the harder USAMO’25 Olympiad, Grok-4 Heavy scored 61.9% (best ever), vs ~49% by standard Grok-4 and ~35–38% by earlier models. This shows Grok-4’s dominant edge in complex math reasoning. DeepSeek has not reported on Olympiad-level exams, but generally targets high accuracy on routine math; it was regarded as very strong for an open model but hasn’t reached these new heights.
HumanEval (coding) – DeepSeek’s forte. DeepSeek-Coder models achieve state-of-the-art open-code results: the initial 33B coder beat OpenAI Codex and GPT-3.5, and the enhanced Coder-V2 (236B MoE) is “superior to GPT-4 Turbo, Claude 3 Opus, and Gemini 1.5 Pro” on coding benchmarks. While exact pass@1 figures for DeepSeek R1 are scarce, one analysis noted R1’s code generation is on par with OpenAI o3 (a GPT-3.5/4 hybrid). Grok-4 is also an excellent coder – likely comparable to GPT-4. (Grok-3’s code score was ~79% on LiveCodeBench; OpenAI GPT-4 is ~85% on HumanEval for reference. It’s expected Grok-4 reaches or exceeds ~85% as well.) In practice, Grok can produce well-structured, correct code in many languages and even handle debugging or writing code from visual cues. Bottom line: Both models are highly competent coders, with DeepSeek-Coder V2 slightly ahead on specialized code benchmarks, while Grok-4 is at the cutting edge for general coding integrated with reasoning.
Reasoning & Knowledge – Both shine in different ways. DeepSeek R1 is praised for logical consistency and thorough explanations in its answers (often providing step-by-step reasoning). It was called “efficient for STEM fields…focus on accuracy”. In side-by-side tests, DeepSeek R1 often wins at logic puzzles and stepwise solutions. Grok-4, however, has now taken the lead on the most challenging reasoning benchmarks. Notably, xAI introduced “Humanity’s Last Exam” in 2025 – a extremely difficult crowdsourced QA test across math, science, humanities. Grok-4 scored 25.4% without tools (beating Google Gemini 2.5’s 21.6%). More impressively, Grok-4 Heavy scored 44.4% with tools – nearly double Gemini 2.5 (26.9%). This was a breakthrough, as these questions are so hard that even GPT-4 scored ~21%. Similarly, on ARC-AGI (a visionary IQ test of puzzle problems with some visual patterns), Grok-4 Heavy set a new record 16.2% (vs. next-best Claude Opus 4 at ~8%). These results suggest Grok-4 Heavy currently holds state-of-the-art reasoning ability among public models – a significant leap towards “AGI”-level problem solving.
Chat Quality & Elo – Both models deliver high-quality, natural language answers, but with different styles. DeepSeek is knowledgeable and straightforward, though perhaps a bit less “chatty” or creative than some Western models. Grok emphasizes a conversational, even entertaining tone. Musk noted Grok’s answers are “engaging and human-like… with humor”, whereas DeepSeek’s are correct but sometimes less vividly phrased. In the Chatbot Arena crowd comparisons, Grok has consistently ranked at the top. An early version of Grok-3 (code-named “chocolate”) hit #1 on the arena leaderboard. DeepSeek R1 also ranks very highly (often within top-5 of models on lmsys Arena in 2025), marking it as the strongest open model. Overall, Grok-4’s conversational prowess and dynamic use of tools give it an edge in head-to-head chat battles, but DeepSeek R1 is not far behind and often wins user preference when factual accuracy and detailed reasoning are required.
Speed and Efficiency
DeepSeek uses an MoE architecture that makes it relatively efficient in active parameters vs total size (only ~37B parameters are used per token generation). This means serving the model can be lighter than a monolithic model of equal total size. DeepSeek supports fast inference with optimized deployments (they even provide a ChatGPT-compatible API and guidance for running Lite versions on GPUs). However, DeepSeek R1’s emphasis on thorough reasoning can result in longer response times for complex queries – e.g. taking nearly 4 minutes to systematically solve a logic puzzle. In general Q&A or casual chat, DeepSeek is reasonably quick, but under heavy public load in early 2025 users saw slowdowns (the built-in browser sometimes timed out due to demand). The team has since upgraded infrastructure, and the R1-0528 update improved response stability and coherence while maintaining strong chain-of-thought performance. DeepSeek can be self-hosted by enterprises to scale as needed, or accessed via their cloud API with “unbeatable” pay-as-you-go pricing.
Grok-4 benefits from xAI’s enormous compute and optimized serving on the X platform. Its responses are typically very fast for everyday questions, thanks to heavy optimization and the model’s ability to do “reasoning on demand” (it doesn’t always engage full slow chain-of-thought unless needed). With Grok-3, xAI introduced a button to toggle the intensive “Think” mode, which lets the model spend seconds to minutes on hard problems. Users can choose quick answers or deeper reasoning. Grok-4 inherits this and further allows parallel agent reasoning (in Heavy mode) – ironically, this increases compute usage but can reduce time-to-answer for hard queries by having multiple agents work concurrently. That said, Grok-4 Heavy is only available to premium users and likely runs on clusters of GPUs for each session, so it’s extremely powerful but resource-intensive. In terms of efficiency, xAI reported a 6× training compute efficiency gain via infrastructure and algorithm advances to make Grok-4’s massive RL training feasible. In deployment, Grok is integrated into X’s systems – for example, it can generate answers in the X app almost instantly for standard queries. For developers, xAI is working with cloud providers to offer Grok-4 via APIs in a scalable way. Overall, Grok-4 (standard) feels speedy and responsive, while Grok-4 Heavy is blisteringly intelligent at the cost of huge compute – currently reserved for those who pay for SuperGrok service.
Use Cases and Target Audiences
Both DeepSeek and Grok target a broad range of AI assistant tasks, but their positioning differs:
DeepSeek – Aims to be an open, all-in-one AI assistant accessible to everyone (the tagline: “Your free all-in-one AI tool”). Its strongholds are STEM applications, coding, data analysis, education, and research. Many users (including academics and developers) favor DeepSeek for tasks requiring accuracy and technical depth – e.g. solving math problems, writing correct code, explaining scientific concepts. Its multilingual training (14.8 trillion tokens across languages) also makes it useful for non-English users; it has a Chinese origin and handles Chinese queries very well, alongside English and others. DeepSeek’s open-source nature means companies and hobbyists can fine-tune or deploy it for custom use cases – from building chatbots, to assisting in content creation, to integrating in software (its Apache-2 style license allows commercial use). In China, DeepSeek has been seen as a home-grown alternative to GPT, suitable for local businesses given its cultural and regulatory alignment. Globally, its appeal is to power users who want an AI they can inspect and control (all research code and model checkpoints are on GitHub/HuggingFace). Example use cases highlighted: a developer uses DeepSeek-Coder to generate entire project codebases; a student uses DeepSeek-VL to analyze lecture slides and ask questions; a data analyst uses DeepSeek to crunch numbers and verify results step-by-step.
Grok (xAI) – Designed as a next-gen chatbot for the masses on X. Elon Musk has positioned Grok as a direct competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, with a distinct “personality” that might attract users who find other AI too filtered or bland. Grok’s witty, sometimes irreverent tone is a selling point for engagement – it can make jokes, generate memes, or “roast” the user humorously. General knowledge Q&A, writing help, and entertainment are big use cases (Musk even had Grok provide real-time snarky commentary on events on X). Because Grok is plugged into real-time data from the web and X, it’s ideal for current events, news analysis, stock and crypto queries, and any up-to-date information needs. For instance, one can ask Grok how people on X are reacting to a trending topic, and it will actually search X posts for an answer – something static models cannot do. Grok also pushes into multimedia: with Grok Imagine, creative users (advertisers, artists, etc.) can generate images and videos by simply asking (within some content limits). On the professional side, xAI is courting enterprise customers by promising powerful Grok-4 APIs and custom solutions. Grok-4’s top-notch performance on academic and legal benchmarks (Musk claims it’s “better than PhD level in every subject” in QA) suggests use in research assistance, legal analysis, finance, etc., if the edgy personality can be toned to a business-appropriate manner. The target audience for Grok ranges from casual social media users (via the free basic tier on X) to AI enthusiasts who pay for the Premium features, to businesses looking for an AI with internet-enabled capabilities.
In summary, DeepSeek is favored by those who need a reliable, transparent AI they can run or customize (developers, researchers, educators), with strengths in technical accuracy and multi-language support. Grok-4 is geared more toward end-users wanting a cutting-edge, internet-connected AI assistant integrated in their daily platform (X), as well as enterprises willing to invest in the most powerful model for competitive advantage.
Integration and Platform Support
DeepSeek Integration: DeepSeek offers multiple access points. Individuals can use the DeepSeek Chat web app or mobile app for free (DeepSeek-V3 and R1 are available to try instantly). For developers, DeepSeek provides an API platform with OpenAI-compatible endpoints – meaning you can swap in DeepSeek’s API in place of a GPT API with minimal changes. The pricing is usage-based and notably affordable (marketed as “pay-as-you-go at an unbeatable price”). Self-hosting is also possible: the model weights for research versions (e.g. DeepSeek LLM, Coder, VL) are downloadable on HuggingFace/GitHub. Many enthusiasts run smaller DeepSeek variants on local GPUs. Integration-wise, DeepSeek can be plugged into apps, chatbot frameworks, or workflow automation. For instance, plugins exist to use DeepSeek in VS Code for coding assistance, and it’s listed in platforms like Ollama for local deployment. It supports Windows, Linux and provides libraries for Python, etc., making it straightforward to integrate into software. DeepSeek is also integrated with community projects (it can be invoked via LangChain or HuggingFace pipelines as a backend model). In enterprise settings, companies can finetune DeepSeek on their proprietary data since it’s open – offering a level of control closed models can’t.
Grok Integration: xAI has tightly integrated Grok into the X (Twitter) ecosystem. Any X user can access Grok through the X interface – for example, by DMing the @Grok bot or using the dedicated Grok chat UI on X. Grok is also available via official iOS and Android apps (separate from the main X app, as a chatbot application). As of mid-2025, xAI is expanding availability through an API: Grok-4 (and Grok 3/mini) are being rolled out on the xAI developer console, so developers can integrate Grok into their own products. xAI is partnering with major cloud providers (“hyperscalers”) to host Grok, meaning we might see it offered on platforms like Azure, AWS, or others as a service. However, unlike DeepSeek, Grok’s model weights are not openly released (apart from the early Grok-1). So integration is only via xAI’s services (cloud API or apps), not self-hosting. In terms of platform support, beyond X, we have seen Grok integrated in Musk’s other ventures – e.g. it’s used in Tesla and SpaceX for internal tooling (according to Musk’s comments). With tool use, Grok can in principle connect to external systems: it can call code execution (like OpenAI’s Code Interpreter) and web browse, so integration in a workflow could involve letting Grok fetch data from a company database or run computations. But these are managed via xAI’s interface (for example, Premium+ API might allow custom tool plugins). Summarily, Grok is accessed as a service – deeply embedded in X for consumers, and accessible via API for businesses – whereas DeepSeek can be obtained as a model to embed anywhere.
Pricing Models
One major difference is cost: DeepSeek is free and open-source, while Grok-4 is a premium service (with a limited free tier).
DeepSeek Pricing: The core models (R1, V3, Coder, VL, etc.) are free to use. DeepSeek’s creators released them under permissive licenses. The official DeepSeek Chat app and API had free access during 2024–2025 to build adoption. As usage grew, DeepSeek introduced an API billing model, but it remains low-cost. They advertise “free access to DeepSeek-V3 and R1” for casual users, and the option to pay for higher volume on the platform. For example, you can use the OpenRouter or DeepSeek Platform to get GPT-4-level performance at a fraction of OpenAI’s price. Precise pricing numbers aren’t published in our sources, but the strategy is clearly to undercut proprietary models (since DeepSeek doesn’t have the same profit motive and benefits from community contributions). This makes DeepSeek attractive for startups or projects with limited budget – you can essentially get a powerful LLM without spending $20+/month per user, and without worry of API quota unless you hit large scale.
Grok/X.AI Pricing: Grok started as free for X users in beta (with severe rate limits on usage), but as of 2025 xAI moved to subscription plans. There’s a multi-tier model:
Freemium (Free): Basic Grok access for all X users – you can ask a limited number of questions to Grok (and perhaps with less computation, e.g. only standard mode, no heavy reasoning). This is similar to how OpenAI offers a free ChatGPT but with older models and limitations.
Premium / Premium+: Paid tiers (previously around $16/month and higher) giving fuller access to Grok’s capabilities. Premium+ users were the first to get Grok-3’s advanced features like the Think mode and DeepSearch agent. These tiers likely map to something like $20–$40/month range (exact figures not in sources, but Musk hinted at wanting an affordable price for individuals).
SuperGrok Heavy ($300/mo): Introduced July 2025, this is an ultra-premium plan aimed at power-users and professionals. For $300 per month, subscribers get exclusive early access to Grok-4 Heavy and upcoming cutting-edge features. Essentially, this tier covers the significant compute cost of running multi-agent reasoning and tool-augmented queries. It’s notably the most expensive AI subscription among major providers as of 2025. xAI is pitching it to enthusiasts or enterprises that need the absolute best model performance. For context, OpenAI’s highest plan (ChatGPT Enterprise) and Anthropic’s Claude Instant plans are generally less costly, so xAI is testing how much users will pay for an “uncensored, super-intelligent” AI.
Given these models, a casual user can experiment with Grok on X for free, but serious usage requires paying. Meanwhile, anyone can use DeepSeek’s full power without subscription – a compelling point for communities like researchers or open-source developers. Companies deciding between them must weigh the total cost of ownership: DeepSeek may require technical setup but no license fees, whereas Grok is plug-and-play but with ongoing subscription/API fees.
Release Timeline and Roadmap
DeepSeek Roadmap: The DeepSeek project emerged rapidly. By late 2023, DeepSeek-V1 and V2 were released (initial MoE LLMs), followed by DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 in Jan 2025 (R1 launched on January 20, 2025). Throughout 2024–2025, DeepSeek published technical reports (e.g. the DeepSeek-Coder paper in Jan 2024, DeepSeek-VL in mid-2024). The team continues an iterative release cycle:
Early 2025: R1 (chat model) and V3 (base) release.
Spring 2025: R1-0528 update (also called R1.1) in May 2025 brought improvements.
We can expect a DeepSeek-R2 or V4 next – although not announced by August 2025, the natural next steps likely include a refined reasoning model (R2) building on user feedback, and perhaps a larger MoE base (V4) if they expand experts or tokens further. DeepSeek-AI’s research hints at focusing on “scalable oversight and adversarial robustness” in training, implying future models will work to be safer and more resilient. They also introduced new benchmarks (e.g. DeepSeek Math and internal stress tests) to guide development. Given the open culture, when R2 arrives it will likely come with an academic paper and open weights. Another roadmap item is multimodal generation – DeepSeek-VL covers understanding, but one could imagine DeepSeek integrating image creation via diffusion models, etc., to keep up with competitors. No official word on that as of Aug 2025.
On the application side, DeepSeek is expanding platform offerings: e.g. a DeepSeek App for mobile (already available), improved DeepSeek Platform for API users, and possibly enterprise on-premise packages. The consistent theme is to grow the user base by offering a high-quality free AI assistant and improving incrementally.
Grok/xAI Roadmap: xAI has been extremely aggressive in its timeline:
Nov 2023: Grok 1 launched to a small group.
Mar 2024: Grok-1.5 (with 128k context) released to testers.
Apr 2024: Grok-1.5V (vision preview) announced.
Aug 2024: (approx.) Grok 2.0 launched (Musk had indicated an open-source release of Grok 2 in Aug 2024, though details are sparse).
Feb 2025: Grok 3 Beta released to Premium users.
July 2025: Grok 4 and 4 Heavy launched publicly.
This breakneck schedule (“5 months from Grok 3 to Grok 4”) shows xAI’s commitment to rapid iteration. According to TechCrunch, xAI’s near-term roadmap (as of July 2025) includes:
August 2025: an AI coding model (likely a specialized Grok for coding, akin to OpenAI’s Code Interpreter or a finetuned version of Grok-4 for software tasks).
September 2025: a multimodal agent – possibly an AI that can not only see images but take actions (think, an AI assistant that can handle text, vision, and maybe voice, in an agentic way).
October 2025: a video-generation model (building on Grok Imagine’s foundation).
These indicate xAI’s strategy to cover all bases: best text model, best code model, best image/video generator, etc., all under the Grok ecosystem. Further out, Musk has teased GPT-5 is coming from OpenAI, so xAI will likely push a Grok-5 to stay ahead. Each Grok version has massively scaled compute; if the pattern continues, Grok-5 might involve even more radical techniques (possibly billions of parameters active, deeper multi-agent orchestration, or integrating new modalities like audio). Musk’s vision is explicitly to work toward AGI – he’s claimed it’s “just a matter of time” for Grok to start inventing new science or technology beyond human knowledge.
In terms of releases to users, xAI will continue the tiered approach: new features roll out to premium tiers first. We’ve seen them adjust system prompts and policies on the fly (after the July incident) and they likely will refine Grok-4 through 2025 with frequent cloud updates rather than big version jumps immediately. One can expect Grok-4.5 or similar improvements quietly rolled into the service as they gather more feedback. If xAI follows their pattern, a Grok 5 could appear by late 2025 or early 2026.
To conclude, DeepSeek vs Grok-4 is a battle of philosophies as much as technologies: Open, community-driven development targeting maximal accessibility and accuracy (DeepSeek) versus a fast-moving, well-funded effort aiming to dominate with raw power and integration (Grok/xAI). As of August 2025, Grok-4 Heavy holds the crown in sheer performance on many benchmarks, and its internet tools and personality offer a unique user experience. However, DeepSeek is not far behind – it delivers remarkable capabilities (especially in coding and detailed reasoning) at essentially no cost, which is incredibly valuable for the AI community. Going forward, it wouldn’t be surprising to see DeepSeek continue to close the gap with open innovation (perhaps adopting some of Grok’s ideas like tool-use agents), while xAI pushes toward AGI-level features. Users and businesses in 2025 are fortunate to have both: one can choose the free, open-source polymath or the premium super-intelligence with an attitude, depending on one’s needs and philosophy.
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