DeepSeek · language model
DeepSeek V3 0324: pricing, context and benchmarks
DeepSeek V3 0324 is DeepSeek's model released on March 24, 2025. It costs $0.29 per million input tokens and $1.14 per million output tokens, with a 163.8K-token context window. Epoch AI ranks it #112 of 125 rated models.
What you need to know about DeepSeek V3 0324
DeepSeek, based in China, put DeepSeek V3 0324 online on March 24, 2025. It accepts text as input and produces text. Its context window reaches 163,840 tokens, larger than 32 % of the models in the registry, and it can write up to 115,200 tokens in one go.
Released more than 1 year ago, it belongs to a generation most vendors have since superseded.
DeepSeek V3 0324 pricing
On OpenRouter, DeepSeek V3 0324 costs $0.29 per million input tokens and $1.14 per million output tokens. Counting three tokens read for every token written, its average price is $0.502 per million, more expensive than 41 % of paid models (1.5 times cheaper than the median of $0.76).
A concrete example: a task that sends 2,000 tokens (about 1,500 words) and receives a 500-token answer costs $0.0012. At 1,000 tasks a day, budget $35 a month. The price calculator redoes this with your own volumes.
Tokens already sent and cached are billed at $0.11 per million.
Performance and benchmarks
The Epoch Capabilities Index (ECI), which aggregates published results across many benchmarks, gives DeepSeek V3 0324 a score of 132.3 (range 128.1 to 135.2). That places it #112 of 125 rated models.
Scores published by Epoch AI on the benchmarks the site tracks:
| Benchmark | What it measures | Score | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | PhD-level science questions | 67.6 % | Mar 24, 2025 |
| OTIS Mock AIME | maths competition problems | 37.8 % | Mar 24, 2025 |
| Aider Polyglot | coding exercises in several languages | 55.1 % | Mar 24, 2025 |
For at least equal performance, Claude Haiku 5.5, GPT-6 Luna, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 cost at least 30% less.
Features, privacy and local use
- It supports tool calling, so it can drive an AI agent, call APIs or MCP servers.
- It can answer in an enforced JSON format (structured outputs).
- Its knowledge stops at July 2024.
Its weights are open and downloadable from Hugging Face (mit licence): you can run it on your own machines without sending your data to a third party. With 684,531,386,000 billion parameters, it needs about 382,511,719,689 GB of memory at 4-bit quantisation. Check with the VRAM calculator. It was downloaded 659,570 times on Hugging Face last month.
Other DeepSeek models
| Model | Released | Avg. price | ECI |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Oct 17, 2026 | $0.26 | 155.9 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sep 10, 2026 | $0.27 | 155.9 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp | Aug 21, 2026 | $0.32 | — |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 | Aug 12, 2026 | $0.99 | 155.6 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 | Jul 31, 2026 | $0.07 | 154.8 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Apr 24, 2026 | $0.26 | 155.6 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 | Apr 24, 2026 | $0.11 | 154.8 |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | Dec 1, 2025 | $0.32 | 146.1 |
Verdict
Computed score: 39/100, from public data (performance, price, context, features).
Strengths
- Open weights: self-hostable, your data stays with you.
- Agent-ready: tool calling and structured JSON output.
Limitations
- Modest performance: behind 89 % of rated models.
- Older generation, often replaced by a newer model from the same vendor.
- Text only: reads neither images nor files.
Avoid if…
- you want to host it on a single consumer computer (≈ 382,511,719,689 GB needed at 4-bit).
Alternatives
- Mistral Medium 3$0.8
- GPT-4o-mini$0.26
- GPT-4o-mini (2024-07-18)$0.26
- Llama 4 Maverick$0.3
- Gemma 3 27B$0.15
- Gemma 2 27B$0.65
Comparisons and tools
Learn more
Frequently asked questions
How much does DeepSeek V3 0324 cost?
$0.29 per million input tokens and $1.14 per million output tokens on OpenRouter (checked October 25, 2026). A task with 2,000 tokens read and 500 written costs $0.0012.
How big is DeepSeek V3 0324's context window?
163,840 tokens, roughly 123,000 words, with a maximum of 115,200 output tokens.
Can DeepSeek V3 0324 run locally?
Yes, its weights are published under the mit licence. Expect about 382,511,719,689 GB of memory at 4-bit.
Is DeepSeek V3 0324 suitable for an AI agent?
Technically yes: it supports tool calling and structured outputs. Then check its cost for your volume.
How good is DeepSeek V3 0324?
Epoch AI ranks it #112 of 125 rated models (ECI 132.3). On GPQA Diamond, it scores 67.6%.
What are the alternatives to DeepSeek V3 0324?
The closest models on price and performance are Mistral Medium 3, GPT-4o-mini, and GPT-4o-mini (2024-07-18).
Related articles
- Mistral AI: models, pricing and agentsOctober 25, 2026
- LLM benchmarks: how to read model rankingsOctober 24, 2026
- Running a local LLM: hardware, software, and limitationsOctober 24, 2026
- Open-source or closed models for your AI agents?October 5, 2026
Neutrality. No affiliate links. No vendor pays to be reviewed, rated or ranked. Reviews are directed by François Chollet, neutral and factual, and every data point is dated and sourced. How we score