Solar Pro 3 is $0.14 cheaper per 1M input tokens (47.7% lower; 1.91x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Solar Pro 3 vs DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale
Pick Solar Pro 3 for lower cost; pick DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale only if the larger context window matters more.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Solar Pro 3 for lower cost; pick DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale only if the larger context window matters more.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Pro 3 is estimated at $0.45 vs $0.5 for DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale, saving $0.05 (10.4% lower).
Cost-first pickSolar Pro 3
Context-first pickDeepSeek V3.2 Speciale
Sample savings$0.0510.4%
10x traffic gap$0.52
DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale has more context, but Solar Pro 3 saves $0.05 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.52. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Cost winner changes by workload shape: input-heavy / RAG favors Solar Pro 3, balanced workload favors DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale, and output-heavy chatbot favors DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Solar Pro 3 | DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Solar Pro 3 | $1.05 | $1.65 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale | $0.75 | $0.72 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale | $3.15 | $2.44 |
DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale is $0.17 cheaper per 1M output tokens (28.2% lower; 1.39x difference).
DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale has 35.84K more context (1.28x larger).
Solar Pro 3 is $0.05 cheaper on the standard workload (10.4% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Solar Pro 3 has the lower input price; DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale has the lower output price; DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Solar Pro 3 is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.45 for Solar Pro 3 and $0.5 for DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale.
Choose Solar Pro 3 when you care most about lower input-token price.
Choose DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale when you care most about lower output-token price, and larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Pro 3 is estimated at $0.45 vs $0.5 for DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale, saving $0.05 (10.4% lower).
- Solar Pro 3 is $0.05 cheaper on the standard workload (10.4% lower).
- Solar Pro 3 is $0.14 cheaper per 1M input tokens (47.7% lower; 1.91x difference).
- DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale is $0.17 cheaper per 1M output tokens (28.2% lower; 1.39x difference).
- DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale has 35.84K more context (1.28x larger).
| Feature | Solar Pro 3 (Upstage) | DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale (DeepSeek) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.15 | $0.287 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.6 | $0.431 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.45 | $0.5 |
| Context Window | 128K | 163.84K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Solar Pro 3 | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Solar Pro 3 is estimated at $0.45 vs $0.5 for DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale, saving $0.05 (10.4% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Solar Pro 3 | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) can replace DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash can replace DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.2.
- R1 Distill Qwen 32B can replace DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.43.
- DeepSeek V3.2 can replace DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.44.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- No popular competitor is currently available.
Cheaper alternatives
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
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Open DeepSeek modelsSolar Pro 3 is Upstage's powerful Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model. With 102B total parameters and 12B active parameters per forward pass, it delivers exceptional performance while maintaining computational efficiency. Optimized...
DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale is a high-compute variant of DeepSeek-V3.2 optimized for maximum reasoning and agentic performance. It builds on DeepSeek Sparse Attention (DSA) for efficient long-context processing, then scales post-training reinforcement learning...