GPT-5.2 Pro vs DeepSeek-R1

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

GPT-5.2 Pro is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 90 to 43. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.2 Pro's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 84.8 against 21.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 83 to 17.

GPT-5.2 Pro is also the more expensive model on tokens at $25.00 input / $150.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.55 input / $2.19 output per 1M tokens for DeepSeek-R1. That is roughly 68.5x on output cost alone. GPT-5.2 Pro gives you the larger context window at 400K, compared with 128K for DeepSeek-R1.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.2 Pro if you want the stronger benchmark profile. DeepSeek-R1 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

85.9

DeepSeek-R1

44.5

88
Terminal-Bench 2.0
42
88
BrowseComp
49
82
OSWorld-Verified
44

Coding

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

84.8

DeepSeek-R1

21.5

93
HumanEval
36
83
SWE-bench Verified
17
81
LiveCodeBench
19
89
SWE-bench Pro
25

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

96

DeepSeek-R1

47.5

96
MMMU-Pro
43
96
OfficeQA Pro
53

Reasoning

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

95.2

DeepSeek-R1

50.9

97
SimpleQA
42
95
MuSR
40
98
BBH
66
93
LongBench v2
58
95
MRCRv2
57

Knowledge

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

81.5

DeepSeek-R1

37.9

99
MMLU
44
99
GPQA
43
97
SuperGPQA
41
95
OpenBookQA
39
90
MMLU-Pro
52
44
HLE
14
93
FrontierScience
44

Instruction Following

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

95

DeepSeek-R1

69

95
IFEval
69

Multilingual

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

93.4

DeepSeek-R1

60.4

96
MGSM
61
92
MMLU-ProX
60

Mathematics

GPT-5.2 Pro

GPT-5.2 Pro

98.2

DeepSeek-R1

52.5

99
AIME 2023
44
99
AIME 2024
46
99
AIME 2025
45
96
HMMT Feb 2023
40
98
HMMT Feb 2024
42
97
HMMT Feb 2025
41
97
BRUMO 2025
43
99
MATH-500
64

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro is ahead overall, 90 to 43. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 83 and 17.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.5 versus 37.9. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 84.8 versus 21.5. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 98.2 versus 52.5. Inside this category, HMMT Feb 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 95.2 versus 50.9. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 85.9 versus 44.5. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 96 versus 47.5. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 95 versus 69. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.2 Pro or DeepSeek-R1?

GPT-5.2 Pro has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 93.4 versus 60.4. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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