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DeepSeek V3 vs Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct

Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

DeepSeek V3

35

VS

Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct

27

3 categoriesvs0 categories

Pick DeepSeek V3 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct only becomes the better choice if its workflow or ecosystem matters more than the raw scoreboard.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Coding

DeepSeek V3
39.2vs37.2

+2.0 difference

Knowledge

DeepSeek V3
70vs40.9

+29.1 difference

Inst. Following

DeepSeek V3
86.1vs75.8

+10.3 difference

Operational Comparison

DeepSeek V3

Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct

Price (per 1M tokens)

$0.27 / $1.1

N/A

Speed

N/A

N/A

Latency (TTFT)

N/A

N/A

Context Window

128K

128K

Quick Verdict

Pick DeepSeek V3 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct only becomes the better choice if its workflow or ecosystem matters more than the raw scoreboard.

DeepSeek V3 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 35 to 27. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

DeepSeek V3's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 70 against 40.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 59.1% to 40.9%.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, DeepSeek V3 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct?

DeepSeek V3 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 35 to 27. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 59.1% and 40.9%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, DeepSeek V3 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct?

DeepSeek V3 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 70 versus 40.9. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V3 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct?

DeepSeek V3 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 39.2 versus 37.2. Inside this category, LiveCodeBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, DeepSeek V3 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct?

DeepSeek V3 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 86.1 versus 75.8. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

DeepSeek V3
API / mo$1,028
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even1.2B/day
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct
API / mo$0
Self-host / moN/A
Break-even
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
Model the full break-even

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Last updated: June 8, 2026

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