GPT-3.5 Turbo vs DeepSeek V3.2

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

GPT-3.5 Turbo

OpenAI

Budget model for simple tasks. Being phased out but still widely used.

Input	$0.500/M
Output	$1.50/M
Context	16K tokens
Best For	Simple chatbots, basic text generation
Benchmark	40/100

DeepSeek

Updated V3 model with improved general reasoning and multilingual capability. Strong value proposition.

Input	$0.300/M
Output	$1.20/M
Context	128K tokens
Best For	General tasks, bilingual coding, cost-effective workflows

Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.

Scenario	GPT-3.5 Turbo	DeepSeek V3.2	Savings
Small Script (1K lines)	$0.06	$0.05	DeepSeek V3.2 saves $0.02 (26%)
Medium Feature (10K lines)	$0.48	$0.34	DeepSeek V3.2 saves $0.13 (27%)
Large Project (50K lines)	$2.38	$1.73	DeepSeek V3.2 saves $0.65 (27%)
Code Review (5K lines)	$0.13	$0.08	DeepSeek V3.2 saves $0.04 (34%)

DeepSeek V3.2 wins on both price and performance — $0.300/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.

For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.

Anthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.

Anthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.

Previous generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.

Fast, cost-effective model for high-volume tasks. Great for code review and simple queries.

First generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.

First generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.