2025’s toughest choice: ChatGPT versus DeepSeek

A Chinese AI model surclassing ChatGPT’s AI conversational model as the #1 most downloaded on the Apple Store in the US was most definitely not on anyone’s January 2025 bingo card. And yet, with the entire TikTok ban fiasco that caused quite the stirrup in the United States and a soaring number of users migrating to Chinese social media direct competitor RedNote, we’re not that surprised at how amazing DeepSeek is performing with users as of right now. Developer communities have been running benchmarking tests for the past couple of days and the consensus seems to be that DeepSeek outperforms ChatGPT with flying colors, especially in more complex tasks like coding. 

ChatGPT has earned its reputation as the iPhone of AI models for millions of users all over the world, and with DeepSeek quickly catching up from behind or even taking the lead here and there, we’re joining in the DeepSeek V3 vs ChatGPT 4 debate with a quick analytical comparison of the two tools. For this test, we’ve created two free accounts and experimented with a variety of prompts, topics, and ideas. Here’s what we learned.

ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek: the visual experience

Gone are the days of roughhousing it with website interfaces, and user experience has truly become an essential part of choosing our tech stack. Both ChatGPT and DeepSeek feature truly sleek interfaces, with similar choices when it comes to the main commands. Let’s go through the main differentiating features for both:
 

ChatGPT’s free model definitely brings some more features to the table, such as a freemium version of Voice Mode, a picture-generation tool relying on the DALL-E technologies, and a marketplace of “GPTs”, but more on that later.

DeepSeek’s free model allows you to upload PDF documents and images out of which it can quickly extract text. This is a pretty basic, yet super useful functionality. Some sources have just revealed that the newest DeepSeek model, Janus, would feature a powerful image generation tool that seriously rivals ChatGPT’s current tool, and we’re waiting for updates as you’re reading this.

ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek: free versus paid

It’s hard to tell who takes the lead in the whole ChatGPT vs DeepSeek debate, and for a really good reason: the costs. We won’t bore you with statistics that highlight how millions of dollars are spent on research and development, but we’re rather going to stick to the pricing model that the everyday user cares about. 

ChatGPT’s pricing starts with a freemium option and plans gradually increase from 20 to 200 USD per month for individual users, with custom offers for teams and enterprises. Some features, like the Voice Mode, are locked behind a paywall, so it’s good to take this into account if you’re on a tight budget. 

DeepSeek, on the other hand, is completely free for personal use cases. Yes, you read that right. If, however, you’re a developer, you can check out their pricing model and get more in-depth information on API integrations, as we’ll be tackling this topic next.

ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek integrations

Perhaps one of the main advantages that place the American AI model in front of its Chinese counterparts is the integration API that’s currently used by numerous software companies that are looking to expand their user base. Not to toot our own horn, but we’re seeing and encouraging a lot of creators to use our free AI video generation tool, FlixierGPT. The possibility to integrate the ChatGPT API into other software tools can truly create an unmatched stack for creatives all over the world, and so far this might be the Open AI’s model biggest advantage in the whole DeepSeek V3 vs. ChatGPT 4 battle for supremacy. 
 

However, DeepSeek might not actually be that far behind. Since it’s an open-source tool, developers can access DeepSeek’s Github repository where the code is publicly available. The API pricing is also a lot more accessible than ChatGPT’s. Only time will tell how feasible it is to build integrations through their model, and we’re excited to see how this will turn out in the next couple of months, or even years.

ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek: carrying a conversation

One thing’s clear: when it comes to carrying a conversation the clear winner of the DeepSeek V3 vs ChatGPT 4 model battle is the latter. The Voice mode feature lets you directly talk to the GPT’s AI model, and you can get either written or spoken responses, depending on whether you’ve enabled the text-to-speech option. This interaction can quite literally feel like speaking to a friend or colleague, so it poses a great deal of importance to many users.

Another interesting option is ChatGPT’s ability to memorize specific preferences and give you personalized responses based on information you’ve given previously. For example, if you’re a vegetarian and specify so while using the tool today, and you come back in 3 weeks asking for recipe ideas, ChatGPT would remember that you don’t consume meat, and it would give you vegetarian-friendly options. You can toggle this feature on and off, but it’s super useful for long-term usage, especially if you’re entering context-specific prompts.

ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek: the ethics department

Balancing ethics and transparency in the ChatGPT vs DeepSeek debate can be a bit tricky here and there. 

Open AI, ChatGPT’s mother company, has faced a lot of backlash when it comes to business decisions like data hosting choices. There’s also a lot of discussion around obvious bias due to its training data sets, which would logically be directly affecting the accuracy of the results. 

DeepSeek, however, is an open-source AI model, and you can directly download it and run it locally on your own device. If you’re not familiar with how open-source software works, running it on your own server means that none of your data would be shared with DeepSeek or other vendors. There are many advantages to using open-source tools as opposed to proprietary software like ChatGPT, which can always be affected by stakeholder decisions in terms of updates, patches, huge pricing changes, and more. But that’s not all!

We tried asking Deepseek and ChatGPT the same questions around sensitive topics that involve recent or historical events, with a particular focus on China. Here’s what happened:

 DeepSeek's result

ChatGPT's results

There is some online buzz on the somewhat controversial responses that DeepSeek gives when prompted to discuss topics that are considered sensitive in relation to Chinese historical or social events, including more recent controversies like the tense relationship between Taiwan and the Chinese state. Major press outlets like Bloomberg called this strategy “auto-censorship” in plain sight, and this is a major turn-off for a lot of people from an ethical standpoint, as it basically limits free speech. There are some workarounds that users pointed out, but all in all, this is something to consider. 

ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek: the video script test

We couldn’t help ourselves, so we had to challenge DeepSeek V3 vs ChatGPT 4 to come up with a video script. Here’s the prompt we used: Please write a short and catchy video script for a TikTok video about ChatGPT versus DeepSeek as the best AI model.

Deepseek took around 18,66 seconds to come up with the script, while ChatGPT took around 16,71 seconds. While both tools included visual indicators like on-screen text and voiceover text, only DeepSeek added relevant hashtags and emojis to help with the video description. Here’s the comparison:

DeepSeek's video script

ChatGPT's video script

If you don’t feel like choosing any of the two options and you’re not yet convinced who won the ChatGPT vs DeepSeek video script battle, you can always try our very own AI video script generator. It’s fast, easy to use, and you can directly integrate it with our AI video generator to create content from scratch, all in the same browser tab.

ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek: the translation test

As a cherry on top, we’ve chosen a phrase in a language spoken by around 25 million people and tasked both AI models to translate it into English. Here are the results of asking ChatGPT vs DeepSeek to translate an idiom from Romanian to English:

DeepSeek's translation test #1

ChatGPT's translation test #1

Our first test proved that both models did a great job at translating both the literal meaning of the words from Romanian to English, as well as highlighting a similar idiom in English that expresses the figurative meaning of the phrase. That’s when we took it for another spin, this time with a slightly different prompt:

DeepSeek's translation test #2

ChatGPT's translation test #2

This time, ChatGPT didn’t exactly go to any lengths and settled for a word-by-word translation of the idiom, whereas DeepSeek took it one step further and explained the meaning of the idiom. 

Of course, a couple of tests can’t fully measure the capabilities of DeepSeek V3 vs ChatGPT 4, so take this with a grain of salt as we encourage you to run your own creative tests before you pick your favorite. 

Whether it’s complex tasks like helping you with snippets of code, or smaller, everyday tasks like summarized research or generating video topic ideas, both tools are amazing in terms of capabilities. Choosing a side in the ChatGPT vs DeepSeek debate is a nearly impossible task, and the only logical conclusion is to try out both and see which one better fits your needs and which one you love using more than the other. We are truly witnessing a first-hand digital battle for the #1 spot and all we can do is enjoy having access to such groundbreaking technology at our very fingertips.