DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: AI Chatbots Comparison

Welcome to the golden age of artificial intelligence, where AI chatbots multiply faster than Reddit conspiracy theories. From writing your break-up texts to explaining quantum physics, chatbots have become our go-to life coaches. So, we came up with an idea and decided to compare two of the best chatbots, DeepSeek vs ChatGPT, in different tests.

Choosing between AI models is like picking between streaming services: overwhelming, slightly confusing, and you’ll probably end up overthinking it. That’s why we’ve made a DeepSeek vs ChatGPT comparison where we make their free versions do everything: from reasoning challenges to writing poetry, so you don’t have to. Who will take home the victory in the battle of DeepSeek AI vs ChatGPT? Let’s find out.

Worth noting: if your work involves data, spreadsheets, or producing deliverables, there’s a third option worth considering, Ajelix Agentic AI Chat. Unlike general chatbots, it’s purpose-built to execute workflows and generate working outputs, not just summarize or explain.

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: Quick Intro

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, was the first widely famous AI Chatbot on the market. People loved how it could assist with the most different tasks: from coding to creative writing. For this reason, other competitors saw an opportunity to create their versions, too.

DeepSeek is one of those competitors that used the opportunity and also made an AI Chatbot Model. How does it differ? They use a multimodal model with a one-million-token context window, native image understanding, and weights published under the MIT license. The app is free with no ads and no paid consumer tier, and anyone can download and self-host the weights.

DeepSeek says it has high-performance models at a lower cost than the competitor.

Well, let’s see what AI research results are saying.

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Artificial Analysis, the research company that summarizes the current trends of artificial intelligence models, has created the AI Intelligence Index. This index compares AI Models in various categories: from reasoning to coding skills.

Here is the most recent AI Intelligence Index Data:

We can observe that, for free users, the ranking favors DeepSeek: its free app serves V4.1-Flash-1017 (45, 12th overall and top-tier among open weights), while ChatGPT’s free tier runs on GPT-6 Luna (38). Paid ChatGPT is the opposite – GPT-6 Astra scores 53, roughly eight points above DeepSeek’s best. Benchmark-wise, free DeepSeek beats free ChatGPT, but paid ChatGPT beats everything DeepSeek offers.

You might be interested: Generative AI for Data Analytics

Bear in mind that in our tests, we will focus solely on testing the free models.

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: Short Comparison

Here is a comparison table of some important features of DeepSeek AI and ChatGPT:

Feature	ChatGPT	DeepSeek
Developer	OpenAI	DeepSeek
Country	United States	China
Models	GPT-6 family: – GPT-6 Astra (flagship, Pro/Business/Enterprise) – GPT-6 Sol (Plus and other paid plans) – GPT-6 Luna (Free and Go) GPT-5.6 models remain available as legacy	– DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 (current default) – DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813 (flagship)
Multimodal Skills	Text, image generation, image analysis, full voice mode, video, native web search	Text, native image understanding, voice input with transcription, web search, and a visible chain-of-thought “DeepThink” mode
Free Plan Limitations	Free plan runs GPT-6 Luna with uncapped everyday text chats, but tight caps on advanced reasoning, file analysis, image creation, deep research, and agent features; ad-supported in some markets.	Fully free with no ads, paywall, and paid consumer plan at all. The app serves the current V4 models in Fast, Expert (thinking), and Visual modes, with web search, file uploads, voice input, and a 1M-token context included.
Pricing	– Free ($0) – Go ($8/mo) – Plus ($20/mo) – Pro ($100 / $200 / $500 per month) – Business ($25/seat/mo, $20 annual — Premium seats at $125/$100) – Enterprise (custom quote)	The consumer app is entirely free, without a subscription. The only paid aspect is the developer API, billed pay-as-you-go.

Let’s start testing, shall we?

The Best Image Creator

We must admit we thought all leading chatbots know how to generate an image. Well. We were wrong.

We gave one of many ChatGPT image prompts: Generate an image of a golden retriever puppy playing with a blue ball.

Suppose you read our previous Chatbots Comparison article. In that case, you might remember how Claude found an alternative solution, even though it doesn’t generate images.

In case you’ve missed our AI Chatbots Comparison: ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude

When we asked to generate an image of a couple, Claude gave us an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) code that could be seen as an image. Check it out:

Yes, not what we exactly wanted, but at least something, right?

We were quite disappointed that DeepSeek just suggested asking for help to its competitors. The clear winner here is ChatGPT.

You might think it’s unreasonable to expect chatbots to handle tasks beyond their abilities, yet we see image generation as an essential feature that makes conversations more dynamic, accessible, and visually engaging.

The Master of Reasoning

We consider reasoning skills an important category to test because they enable chatbots to provide thoughtful, reliable answers instead of just offering shallow, surface-level responses.

So, we gave DeepSeek and ChatGPT this lovely prompt: Should space exploration be prioritized over climate change efforts? Why? Please, answer in a maximum of 100 words.

Here are their answers:

Our team decided that DeepSeek is the winner here. Why? Well, it takes a stronger, more passionate stance. ChatGPT is a more indecisive and keeps mentioning the benefits of addressing climate change or space exploration, which are important, but the answer kind of drifts away from the core of our question.

DeepSeek gets straight to the point, and, understandably, it chooses climate change efforts over space exploration.

However, it wouldn’t be us if we didn’t ask for an extra opinion. So, we did.

Claude and Gemini, welcome to the competition. You are more than welcome to change the current winner choice.

Claude and Gemini Evaluation

We described to Claude and Gemini that we tested the reasoning skills of two other chatbots (not mentioning the names, of course).

For a better understanding of their votes, remember that the first answer we gave them was the answer of ChatGPT, and the second was DeepSeek.

Here is the opinion of our respected AI Jury:

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT in The Good Old Excel

We consider ourselves Excel Experts; we had to test the expertise of DeepSeek and ChatGPT in this program. We gave them a task to generate a VBA Code.

Here is the exact prompt: Generate me a VBA code that turns my Excel spreadsheet into a visually appealing data entry form. It should create input boxes and buttons on the spreadsheet. Don’t use OLE objects or form controls. Use shapes only. The form should be a customer data entry form for a CRM process. The output code should be simple, under 100 rows, and functional.

Important to note that both chatbots committed mistakes and had errors in their codes, so the forms we got were a result of some testing and changing the prompts.

We used Ajelix AI agents to find the mistakes in their codes and turn them into Excel files.

But if you want to skip debugging entirely, Agentic Excel AI takes it further it can generate, execute, and validate your VBA script end-to-end inside a persistent workspace. No copy-pasting or back and forth.

It was worth it for this, though.

Here are the data entry forms:

DeepSeek stands out as the winner because its entry form is not only more to-the-point with flashy colors when you’re working, but the code it provided had significantly less errors than ChatGPT’s.

However, we would rather choose Ajelix for these kind of tasks. Fewer errors and more time saved.

The Most Up-To-Date

People use chatbots for quick answers to their questions, and oftentimes these questions are about some recent events. So, it is very important to find out which chatbot has the most up-to-date information.

We simply asked DeepSeek and ChatGPT: Who played a show on a ship in Budapest last night?

The correct answer: a rock-star named Des Rocs played on the A38 ship floating on the Danube.

Here are the results:

Both ChatGPT and DeepSeek answered correctly, but ChatGPT is the winner here, as it provided an embedded artist info field alongside the short and sweet answer.

If you want an AI that can take that live information and autonomously turn it into a report, dashboard, or presentation, Ajelix Agentic chatbot was built exactly for that including a deep research mode that synthesizes web sources into ready-to-share deliverables.

The Most Creative

For the creativity test, we decided to test the poets inside of ChatGPT and DeepSeek.

We asked Ajelix for poem topics to give to the chatbots. It came up with a wonderful idea that we turned into this prompt: Write a three-verse poem about building a time machine out of cardboard boxes.

Here are the poems:

In our eyes, DeepSeek is the winner. Of course, the enjoyment of creative writing is subjective.

The poem seemed more unique, certainly standing out as more creative and unconventional.

For this test, we also decided to bring the jury into the decision-making process. As always, our jury remains the same: Claude and Gemini, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Claude and Gemini Vote

We informed Claude and Gemini about our poem-writing test of two other chatbots (not mentioning the names, of course). We simply asked them to choose their favorite poem and say why.

For a better understanding of their votes, remember that the first answer we gave them was the answer of ChatGPT, and the second was DeepSeek.

Here is the opinion of our respected AI Jury:

Isn’t it lovely that (again) the jury vote matches our opinion? Of course, compared to us, AI Chatbots know how to argue their answer better. We agree with the jury that DeepSeek outshined ChatGPT with the better narrative, childlike wonder, and vivid details.

Congratulations, DeepSeek! You are our poet here.

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: Who is The Ultimate Winner?

After all the tests, we have found the winner.

Here is a comparison of all categories and the results:

Category	DeepSeek	ChatGPT
Image Generation	🥈	🥇
Reasoning	🥇	🥈
Excel VBA Script	🥇	🥈
Up-to-date Information	🥈	🥇
Creativity	🥇	🥈
Results	GOLD 🥇	SILVER 🥈

DeepSeek gets the winner’s trophy!

While it may not have the most current knowledge or image generation capabilities, its coding, reasoning, and creativity clearly surpass the first AI chatbot on the market, ChatGPT.

One thing both DeepSeek and ChatGPT share: they stop at advice. If you need AI that goes from a prompt to a finished deliverable, such as Excel file, dashboard, app, and presentation, Ajelix Agentic AI Chat is where that gap gets filled. Trusted by 350,000+ professionals, it offers powerful AI models built on their own EU-based infrastructure.

Conclusion

In the battle of DeepSeek vs ChatGPT, DeepSeek comes out on top. Interestingly, our findings perfectly align with the Artificial Intelligence Index for free models, where DeepSeek was overtaking ChatGPT, too.

So, for more technical or creative tasks, we can recommend choosing DeepSeek AI, while ChatGPT is better for providing you with up-to-date information and generating images.

That said, they truly shine when used together. For more complex tasks, it’s always a good idea to use multiple AI chatbots.

Check out our blog, where we publish new articles every Tuesday!

If the comparison above has you thinking “I want the best of both worlds,” Ajelix AI Chat runs multiple powerful models inside a persistent workspace designed for business execution. It’s not choosing between chatbots; it’s giving your work to an AI agent that completes it.

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