Model Comparison 2026

DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs GPT-5.6 Terra

DeepSeek R1 (0528)
DeepSeek · Balanced · Open weights
$0.99/1M · 164K ctx
GPT-5.6 Terra
OpenAI · Balanced · Proprietary
$6.25/1M · 1.1M ctx

Community Vote

Pick a winner in each dimension — change your vote anytime.

Output Quality
Correctness and depth of what it produces
Agentic Ability
Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks
Speed
Tokens per second and time-to-first-token
Value for $
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results — fewer refusals, loops, and format breaks

Specs & Pricing, Side by Side

Spec
DeepSeek R1
Terra
Maker
DeepSeek
OpenAI
Blended price / 1M
$0.99
$6.25
Input / output
$0.50 in · $2.15 out / 1M tokens
$2.50 in · $15 out / 1M tokens
Context window
164K
1.1M
Open weights
Yes
No
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
Yes
Output Quality
7.5
9.0
Agentic Ability
7.0
9.0
Speed
6.8
8.4
Value for $
8.6
8.8
Reliability
8.6
9.2

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: DeepSeek R1 or Terra?

Updated 2026-07-17

Choose DeepSeek R1 (0528) if you want reasoning-heavy planning where cost matters. Choose GPT-5.6 Terra if you want the everyday OpenAI default for agents — volume work with frontier-adjacent quality.

In our editorial scoring, GPT-5.6 Terra leads in 5 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability, speed, value for $ and reliability), while DeepSeek R1 (0528) leads in 0. On price, DeepSeek R1 (0528) runs about $0.99 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; GPT-5.6 Terra is about $6.25 and proprietary.

Where DeepSeek R1 falls short
  • Slow due to long reasoning
  • Weaker at fast tool loops
Full DeepSeek R1 breakdown →
Where Terra falls short
  • Steps behind Sol on the hardest tasks
  • Very new — long-run agent behavior still being characterized
Full Terra breakdown →

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