Qwen Plus vs DeepSeek Reasoner (R1)
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
Qwen Plus
QwenBalanced Qwen model for general tasks. Good price-performance ratio.
| Input | $0.400/M |
| Output | $1.20/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | General-purpose tasks, bilingual coding |
| Benchmark | 55/100 |
DeepSeek Reasoner (R1)
DeepSeekDeepSeek's reasoning model. Comparable to OpenAI's o1 but at much lower cost.
| Input | $0.550/M |
| Output | $2.19/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | Complex reasoning, math, advanced coding |
| Benchmark | 72/100 |
Benchmark Performance Comparison
Third-party benchmark scores — higher is better. Data sourced from SWE-bench, LiveCodeBench, HumanEval, and BigCodeBench.
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 55 | 72 | DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) leads by 17pts |
| SWE-bench Verified | 48 | 68 | DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) leads by 20pts |
| LiveCodeBench | 58 | 76 | DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) leads by 18pts |
| HumanEval | 78 | 90 | DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) leads by 12pts |
| BigCodeBench | 40 | 56 | DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) leads by 16pts |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Qwen Plus | DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.05 | $0.08 | Qwen Plus saves $0.03 (41%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $0.38 | $0.63 | Qwen Plus saves $0.25 (40%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $1.90 | $3.15 | Qwen Plus saves $1.25 (40%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.10 | $0.15 | Qwen Plus saves $0.05 (34%) |
Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)
Lower is better — how much you pay for each point of benchmark performance.
| Model | Overall Score | Price per Score Point | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen Plus | 55 | $0.007/pt | Better value |
| DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) | 72 | $0.008/pt | Higher cost per point |
Qwen Plus delivers the best value at $0.007 per score point.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Qwen Plus
- + Budget-friendly
- - Average performance
DeepSeek Reasoner (R1)
- + Strong reasoning chain
- + Good value
- - Slow on simple tasks
Verdict
Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.400/M, but DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) scores higher on benchmarks (72 vs 55).
Choose Qwen Plus for cost-sensitive projects, DeepSeek Reasoner (R1) when performance matters most.
Compare with Other Models
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Claude Opus 4
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Claude 3.5 Sonnet
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Claude 3.5 Haiku
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Claude 3 Opus
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Claude 3 Sonnet
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