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Model comparison

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1

DeepSeek against Microsoft, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 5, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Microsoft

Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationDeepSeek V4 ProMicrosoft MAI-Thinking-1
ProviderDeepSeekMicrosoft
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1M256K
Max outputWinner: 384K64K
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $1.32$2
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $3.96$8
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters1.6T total / 49B active (MoE)~1T total / 35B active (sparse MoE)
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxlow, medium, high
Modalitiestexttext
LicenseMITNot disclosedUnverified
API model iddeepseek-v4-promai-thinking-1
ReleasedApril 24, 2026June 2, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)53Winner: 55
SWE-bench Verified (2026-04-24)Winner: 80.673.5
GPQA Diamond (2026-04-24)Winner: 90.184.2
Humanity's Last Exam (2026-04-24)48.2Not verifiedUnverified
MMLU-Pro (2026-04-24)87.5Not verifiedUnverified
AIME 2025 (2026-08-12)Not verifiedUnverified97
Terminal-Bench 2.0 (2026-06)Not verifiedUnverified46

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

  • 2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).
  • 2026-08-12: Microsoft AI — Introducing MAI-Thinking-1 (vendor, 256k output)Competition mathematics: AIME 2025 exam problems, typically pass@1 with tools disallowed or single-attempt code execution per the harness. Comparability: comparable with caveat — 30-question total denominator: one problem = ~3.3 points. Tool-use policy (calculator/code interpreter) must match between compared models.
  • 2026-06: Microsoft AI model page (vendor, as labeled: Terminal-Bench 2.0 — NOT comparable to 2.1 observations)Real GitHub issue resolution: does the model's patch pass the hidden tests. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Post-audit vendor claims and pre-audit scores sit on different task trust levels; scaffolding (agent harness, compute budget) also dominates results. Never aggregate across scaffolds.
  • 2026-04-24: DeepSeek V4 Pro HF model card (vendor, Think Max, exact match)Real GitHub issue resolution: does the model's patch pass the hidden tests. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Post-audit vendor claims and pre-audit scores sit on different task trust levels; scaffolding (agent harness, compute budget) also dominates results. Never aggregate across scaffolds.

Pricing tiers: DeepSeek V4 Pro: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. · Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1: Global Standard $2.00/$8.00 per MTok, cached input $0.20 (Azure Retail Prices API, effective 2026-08-01, uniform across ~22 public regions; US Gov regions carry premiums). Still preview; Global Standard only, no PTU yet. 256K context with a 64K output cap that includes reasoning tokens. ~1T/35B sparse MoE; reasoning is always on (no effort levels). Microsoft's first true reasoning model, trained without OpenAI distillation.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 3, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Pro

DeepSeek V4 Pro is the open-weight (MIT) flagship with a 1M-token context at a fraction of frontier API cost.

Best for

  • Cost-sensitive hosted agents
  • Open-weight deployments
  • High-volume coding

Watch out

Self-hosting needs datacentre VRAM; hosted rates vary by provider. Price single-source — verify.

FrontierRecord checked September 5, 2026

Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1

MAI-Thinking-1 is Microsoft's first in-house reasoning model, reducing dependence on OpenAI.

Best for

  • Enterprise (Azure)
  • Reasoning
  • Microsoft ecosystem

Watch out

Foundry-gated preview; no MAI-2 exists yet. Of the Build 2026 MAI wave, only MAI-Thinking-1 and MAI-Cyber-1-Flash ($0.60/$3.50, released 2026-07-27) have published token meters.

When the cheaper one wins

DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper on output at $3.96 per million tokens against $8 for Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 — about 2.0×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 5/5 core specs verified on both sides — All core specifications verified for both models.
  • 3 shared named benchmarks with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, SWE-bench Verified, GPQA Diamond.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 6 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? DeepSeek V4 Pro · Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1

Common questions

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is DeepSeek V4 Pro or Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 cheaper for input?

DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper at $1.32 per million input tokens, against $2 for Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 — roughly 1.5× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V4 Pro has tiered pricing: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 has tiered pricing: Global Standard $2.00/$8.00 per MTok, cached input $0.20 (Azure Retail Prices API, effective 2026-08-01, uniform across ~22 public regions; US Gov regions carry premiums). Still preview; Global Standard only, no PTU yet. 256K context with a 64K output cap that includes reasoning tokens. ~1T/35B sparse MoE; reasoning is always on (no effort levels). Microsoft's first true reasoning model, trained without OpenAI distillation.

Is DeepSeek V4 Pro or Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 cheaper for output?

DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper at $3.96 per million output tokens, against $8 for Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 — roughly 2.0× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V4 Pro has tiered pricing: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 has tiered pricing: Global Standard $2.00/$8.00 per MTok, cached input $0.20 (Azure Retail Prices API, effective 2026-08-01, uniform across ~22 public regions; US Gov regions carry premiums). Still preview; Global Standard only, no PTU yet. 256K context with a 64K output cap that includes reasoning tokens. ~1T/35B sparse MoE; reasoning is always on (no effort levels). Microsoft's first true reasoning model, trained without OpenAI distillation.

Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1?

DeepSeek V4 Pro accepts 1M tokens against 256K for Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do DeepSeek V4 Pro and Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 support the same reasoning levels?

DeepSeek V4 Pro exposes low, high, max, while Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 exposes low, medium, high.

Should I use DeepSeek V4 Pro or Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1?

Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. DeepSeek V4 Pro suits cost-sensitive hosted agents; Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 suits enterprise (azure).

Can I self-host DeepSeek V4 Pro or Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1?

DeepSeek V4 Pro publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $1.32 per 1M tokens versus $2 for Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 — a 1.5x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: DeepSeek V4 Pro takes 1M against 256K for Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Microsoft MAI-Thinking-1 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 55 to 53 (measured 2026-08-14).
  • Deployment: DeepSeek V4 Pro publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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