📝 Executive Summary
DeepSeek V3 (especially the V3.2 Speciale) is a "price disruptor" and "math genius" that has sent
shockwaves through the AI industry.
Recording an astounding score of 96% on AIME and possessing reasoning capabilities comparable to
GPT-5.2, it achieves this while maintaining an API cost that is less than 1/100 of the market
average—an unbelievable level of performance.
However, there are clear drawbacks, such as strict censorship and a lack of support for image input.
It becomes the ultimate weapon when specialized for mathematics and coding.
💰 Pricing Details
- API Input: $0.14 / 1M tokens (approx. 1/35 of GPT-4o)
- API Output: $0.28 / 1M tokens
- Web Chat: Completely free (including Thinking Mode)
🎯 Key Benchmark Results
| Benchmark | DeepSeek Speciale | GPT-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| AIME 2024 (Math) | 96.0% | ~95.0% |
| Codeforces | Grandmaster (2701) | Master Class |
| MMLU (General) | 88.5% | 90.0%+ |
✅ Pros and Cons
👍 Pros
- Overwhelming reasoning accuracy in mathematics and algorithms.
- Disruptive low cost that leaves competitors in the dust.
- High transparency in the thinking process through Thinking Mode.
👎 Cons
- Extremely rigorous censorship regarding political and ethical topics.
- Lack of multimodal features such as image and audio support.
- Concerns regarding stability (slight performance fluctuations during updates).
💭 Reddit User Sentiment
Positive Comments
"For math homework and competitive programming, this is the only choice now. It's so smart it makes GPT-4o look dim."
"The API costs are so low that I actually look forward to checking the invoices. It's a true cost revolution."
Negative Comments
"Amazing performance, but customer data security policies make it difficult to adopt in certain scenarios."
"If you touch upon certain topics, the conversation suddenly breaks down. Strictest censorship I've seen."
🎯 Recommended Use Cases
- Advanced Mathematical Reasoning & Algorithm Design - Solving logic puzzles or optimization problems.
- Massive Codebase Analysis - Processing large volumes of scripts without worrying about costs.
- Batch Processing of Summarization & Classification - Backend tasks leveraging the extremely cheap API.
📊 Conclusion & Overall Rating
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5/5.0)
DeepSeek V3 is the "Black Ship" of the AI industry. Its overwhelming math performance and
disruptive pricing represent the greatest threat to existing giants.
If one understands the privacy risks and censorship, and specializes its use in non-political
domains like mathematics and coding, there is no model with better cost performance currently in
existence.
