DeepSeek V4 Pro Open vs 
o4 Mini Paid
DeepSeek V4 Pro vs o4 Mini compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
DeepSeek V4 Pro vs o4 Mini specs
| Spec | DeepSeek V4 Pro | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Type | Open-weight | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 200K tokens |
| Input price | $0.44/M · free self-host | $1.1/M |
| Output price | $0.87/M · free self-host | $4.4/M |
| Vision / multimodal | No | Yes |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No (API only) |
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
Feature comparison
| Capability | DeepSeek V4 Pro | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✓ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✓ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: DeepSeek V4 Pro vs o4 Mini
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How DeepSeek V4 Pro and o4 Mini score
| Criterion | DeepSeek V4 Pro | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Context window | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 5.0 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 5.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 3.5 | 5.0 |
Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.
What each model is
DeepSeek V4 Pro Open
DeepSeek V4 Pro is a large-scale Mixture-of-Experts model from DeepSeek with 1.6T total parameters and 49B activated parameters, supporting a 1M-token context window. It is designed for advanced reasoning, coding,...
o4 Mini Paid
OpenAI o4-mini is a compact reasoning model in the o-series, optimized for fast, cost-efficient performance while retaining strong multimodal and agentic capabilities. It supports tool use and demonstrates competitive reasoning...
Other models in these families
These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepSeek V4 Pro as good as o4 Mini?
DeepSeek V4 Pro is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but o4 Mini may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.
Can I run DeepSeek V4 Pro locally?
Yes. DeepSeek V4 Pro has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. o4 Mini is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.
How much cheaper is DeepSeek V4 Pro?
DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $0.87/M output vs $4.4/M for o4 Mini — roughly 5x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.
DeepSeek V4 Pro vs o4 Mini — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose o4 Mini if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.
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