If you only read one line: pick by workload, not by benchmark charts.
For Tracking overseas reaction while it happens; English technical questions, Grok is the more direct fit. For Budget-sensitive developers; Chinese writing and translation, DeepSeek gets there with less fighting.
Both have free tiers, so cost only separates them once you hit the limits. DeepSeek takes more text in one go (1M tokens of context; up to 384K tokens of output (checked 2026-10-29) vs 500K tokens (grok-4.7) (checked 2026-10-29)), which matters for whole books, long contracts and big codebases.
| Dimension | Grok | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing | X Subscription: Free $0; Plus $8/mo; Premium $30/mo; Super $100/mo; Ultra $200/mo (annual billing discounted) (checked 2026-10-29) | Web and app free; API list price deepseek-flash CNY 1 / 2 per million input tokens (off-peak / peak) and CNY 4 / 8 output; deepseek-v4-pro CNY 4.5 / 9 input and CNY 13.5 / 27 output (checked 2026-10-29) |
| Context window | 500K tokens (grok-4.7) (checked 2026-10-29) | 1M tokens of context; up to 384K tokens of output (checked 2026-10-29) |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows |
| Best for | Tracking overseas reaction while it happens; English technical questions; X creators who post all day | Budget-sensitive developers; Chinese writing and translation; Private or on-premise deployment |
| Availability | No mainland China edition; reaching it from there needs a proxy or VPN (checked 2026-10-29). | Directly reachable inside mainland China with no proxy, and a China edition exists (checked 2026-10-29). |
Tracking overseas reaction while it happens; English technical questions; X creators who post all day. Its strongest point: Reads live X posts and groups how a topic is argued. Watch out for: States guesses in the same tone as confirmed facts.
Budget-sensitive developers; Chinese writing and translation; Private or on-premise deployment. Its strongest point: Publishes open weights you can download and self-host. Watch out for: Almost no multimodal support for images or audio.
Most people I know keep both tabs open — one for finding things, one for producing the final draft — and stop paying for whichever they touch last.
Grok if you want Tracking overseas reaction while it happens. DeepSeek if Budget-sensitive developers. Neither has a learning curve worth worrying about past the first day.
Yes — both have free tiers, and the pair covers more ground than either alone.
DeepSeek takes more text in one go (1M tokens of context; up to 384K tokens of output (checked 2026-10-29) vs 500K tokens (grok-4.7) (checked 2026-10-29)), which matters for whole books, long contracts and big codebases.