DeepSeek vs Qwen

Two champions of Chinese AI. DeepSeek from 深度求索. Qwen from Alibaba. Which should you use? Benchmarks, pricing, and recommendations.

Try both free via AIPower
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DeepSeek

深度求索 · Since 2023

Reasoning-focused model lineup. V3 for general tasks, R1 dominates math and logic benchmarks.

  • ✓ SOTA math (R1: 97.3% on MATH-500)
  • ✓ Best coder value (92.7% HumanEval)
  • ✓ $0.34/M input — cheap
  • ✓ Chain-of-thought reasoning
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Qwen

阿里通义千问 · Since 2023

Alibaba's flagship model family. Best-in-class bilingual (Chinese-English) quality, solid general performance.

  • ✓ Best Chinese-English bilingual
  • ✓ 128K context (both Plus and Turbo)
  • ✓ Turbo: $0.08/M — ultra-cheap
  • ✓ Stable production-grade API

Benchmark comparison

BenchmarkDeepSeek V3DeepSeek R1Qwen PlusQwen Turbo
MMLU (general)88.5%90.8%89.2%81.3%
HumanEval (code)92.7%89.5%86.1%80.2%
MATH-50085.3%97.3%79.8%67.4%
Chinese (CMMLU)79.2%82.1%84.5%76.8%
Multilingual75.1%78.4%82.3%74.6%

Pricing comparison

DeepSeek

V3 (general)$0.34/$0.50
R1 (reasoning)$0.34/$0.50

Same price for both tiers. Output cheaper than Qwen Plus.

Qwen

Plus (flagship)$0.13/$1.87
Turbo (budget)$0.08/$0.31

Turbo is the cheapest Chinese tier-1 model. Input cheaper than DeepSeek.

Which should you pick?

Pick DeepSeek if...

  • • You're doing math, logic, or complex reasoning — R1 dominates
  • • You want best-value coding — V3 rivals GPT-4o
  • • You need chain-of-thought outputs
  • • Your output tokens dominate your cost (DeepSeek is cheaper on output)
  • • English-only or light multilingual

Pick Qwen if...

  • • You're working with Chinese content — Qwen CMMLU is SOTA
  • • You need multilingual beyond English/Chinese
  • • You need ultra-cheap high volume — Turbo at $0.08/M
  • • Your input tokens dominate (Qwen Plus cheaper on input)
  • • You're building for Chinese market (better cultural context)

💡 Don't pick — use both with smart routing

AIPower's smart routing lets you access both through one API key. Use model="auto" and the system routes each query optimally — DeepSeek for English reasoning, Qwen for Chinese content.

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.aipower.me/v1", api_key="YOUR_KEY")

# Auto — picks optimal based on query
r = client.chat.completions.create(model="auto", messages=[...])

# Or specify — full control
r = client.chat.completions.create(model="deepseek/deepseek-chat", messages=[...])
r = client.chat.completions.create(model="qwen/qwen-plus", messages=[...])

Try both free

50 API calls. Both DeepSeek and Qwen. No Chinese account needed.

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