DeepSeek: R1 vs xAI Grok 4.3: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
Verified 2026 FinOps benchmark comparing DeepSeek: R1 (deepseek/deepseek-r1) vs xAI Grok 4.3 (grok-4.3). Simulate cache read multipliers, context cliffs, MAU bills, and P90 latency.
DeepSeek: R1 (deepseek/deepseek-r1) — Automatic Disk KV Cache ($0.35/1M) & Off-Peak Promo
DeepSeek-V4 Pro (1.6T MoE) automatically caches repeated 64-token prompt prefixes on NVMe storage at $0.07/1M input tokens (50% off $0.14 base) with zero code changes required, plus off-peak UTC scheduling discounts.
xAI Grok 4.3 (grok-4.3) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for xAI Grok 4.3: Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to $1/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing DeepSeek: R1 (API ID: deepseek/deepseek-r1) vs xAI Grok 4.3 (API ID: grok-4.3), DeepSeek: R1 offers lower standard input pricing at $0.7/1M tokens ($2.5/1M output), while DeepSeek: R1 leads in cached prefix economics at $0.35/1M tokens (50% discount). xAI Grok 4.3 achieves a 100ms faster P90 time-to-first-token latency (180ms vs 280ms).
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
Enable Prompt Context Caching & Batch API to reduce repeated system prompt input token burn by 50%-97.5%.
| Specification / FinOps Dimension | DeepSeek: R1 | xAI Grok 4.3 | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | deepseek/deepseek-r1 | grok-4.3 | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0.7 / $2.5 | $2 / $10 | DeepSeek: R1 |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0.35/1M (50% Off) | $1/1M (50% Off) | DeepSeek: R1 |
| Context Window / Max Output | 63K In / 16K Out | 512K In / 128K Out | xAI Grok 4.3 |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 180ms | xAI Grok 4.3 (-100ms) |
DeepSeek R1 is here: Performance on par with [OpenAI o1](/openai/o1), but open-sourced and with fully open reasoning tokens. It's 671B parameters in size, with 37B active in an inf
xAI October 2026 frontier reasoning model with live X/Web grounding and sub-200ms latency.
Real-Time Stack Cost & Hidden-Fee Simulator (MAU / Token / Egress / GMV)
Calibrated with Reddit r/FinOps & r/devops telemetry: Includes Context Caching, Bandwidth Egress, and MoR Tax
✖️Switch from DeepSeek: R1 to xAI Grok 4.3
xAI October 2026 frontier reasoning model with live X/Web grounding and sub-200ms latency. Verified P90 latency of 180ms.