Skip to main content
AIDiveForge AIDiveForge

DeepSeek V3 vs Grok Code Fast 1

Bottom line

DeepSeek V3 is open source and Grok Code Fast 1 is not. You can run DeepSeek V3 on your own machine or server; Grok Code Fast 1 is hosted by the vendor.

Which one should you try?

DeepSeek V3

Freemium

Best for Cost-sensitive organizations requiring frontier-class performance

Visit DeepSeek V3 See full review

Grok Code Fast 1

Freemium

Best for <cite index="1-4">Agentic coding workflows requiring fast loops of reasoning and tool calls</cite>

Visit Grok Code Fast 1 See full review

Pricing, capabilities and platforms side by side. Prices are as of the "Pricing checked" date in the table.

DeepSeek V3

DeepSeek V3

A fast, chat-based, Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from DeepSeek.

Grok Code Fast 1

Grok Code Fast 1

<cite index="2-1">Released in late August 2025, the xAI Grok Code Fast 1 model is a coding-focused AI model that excels at common, high-volume coding task and is designed especially for agentic coding workflows.</cite> <cite index="1-6,1-7,1-8">Built from scratch with a brand-new model architecture, it was trained on a pre-training corpus rich with programming-related content, and curated high-quality datasets that reflect real-world pull requests and coding tasks.</cite> <cite index="1-23">The model is particularly adept at TypeScript, Python, Java, Rust, C++, and Go.</cite> <cite index="1-13">The model is generally available via the xAI API, priced at $0.20 / 1M input tokens, $1.50 / 1M output tokens, and $0.02 / 1M cached input tokens.</cite>

AttributeDeepSeek V3Grok Code Fast 1
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price$0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens$30/month
Pricing checkedNot checked yetJun 11, 2026
Free trialNot stated0 days
Open sourceYesNo
Has APIYesYes
Self-hosted optionYesNo
PlatformsHugging Face, GitHub, DeepSeek API, multiple cloud providers (Cerebras, DeepInfra, Together, OpenRouter, Fireworks, Hyperbolic, SambaNova)<cite index="30-1">Available through xAI API and integrated with launch partners including GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Cline, Roo Code, Kilo Code, opencode, and Windsurf</cite>
LanguagesSupports multiple languages, allowing input and output in several languages<cite index="1-23">TypeScript, Python, Java, Rust, C++, and Go</cite>
Released2024-12-262025-08-28
Pros
  • Cost-effective at $0.27 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens
  • Fast throughput at approximately 60 tokens per second, 3x faster than DeepSeek-V2
  • Fully open-source weights available under MIT License for local deployment
  • Performance comparable to GPT-4 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet
  • Outperforms other open-source models across multiple benchmarks
  • <cite index="2-25,2-26">Massive throughput of approximately 90-100 tokens per second, delivering dozens of tool calls and edits before you finish reading its initial plan in IDE integrations</cite>
  • <cite index="1-13">Economical pricing at $0.20/1M input tokens and $1.50/1M output tokens</cite>
  • <cite index="2-27,2-28,2-29">Visible reasoning traces that provide real-time, summarized view of its reasoning process, helping developers catch logic errors early</cite>
  • <cite index="1-22">Prompt caching optimizations regularly achieving cache hit rates above 90% when used with launch partners</cite>
Cons
  • Context window significantly smaller than some competitors
  • Does not support tool calling (functions)
  • Does not support vision capabilities
  • <cite index="6-31,6-34">Potential gaps in training on specific frameworks; poor performance on Tailwind CSS v3 tasks, suggesting possible smaller model size limitations</cite>
  • <cite index="6-36">Its reasoning model nature makes it unsuitable for interactive workflows requiring fast responses despite fast token throughput</cite>

Made up your mind?

DeepSeek V3

Freemium

Best for Cost-sensitive organizations requiring frontier-class performance

Visit DeepSeek V3 See full review

Grok Code Fast 1

Freemium

Best for <cite index="1-4">Agentic coding workflows requiring fast loops of reasoning and tool calls</cite>

Visit Grok Code Fast 1 See full review

Related comparisons

Free trials & curated lists

Specs come from each tool's own site and docs (how we test). AIDiveForge is editorially independent.

Browse tools · Affiliate Disclosure · Privacy · Cookies · · Email Policy · Terms · DMCA