// Halo
DeepSeek vs ChatGPT — how they compare, and how to run either without a subscription
How DeepSeek and ChatGPT stack up on cost, reasoning, privacy and access — and how to run either one on Halo without a subscription.
DeepSeek vs ChatGPT is the question everyone’s asking since DeepSeek arrived with frontier-level reasoning at a fraction of the cost. Here’s the honest rundown — and how to run either without locking into a subscription.
At a glance
| DeepSeek | ChatGPT (GPT-class) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reasoning / code | Excellent, competitive with the best | Excellent |
| Cost | Very low | Higher; usually a monthly plan |
| Openness | Open weights | Closed |
| Access | Account + region limits on the official app | Account + region limits |
| On Halo | Pay per prompt, no account | Pay per prompt, no account |
Cost is the headline
DeepSeek’s biggest edge is price: it delivers comparable reasoning at a small fraction of the cost. If you mostly do reasoning, coding, or high-volume tasks, that difference adds up fast.
Access and privacy
Both have the same friction on their official apps — an account, a region check, and your prompts going to one vendor. Halo changes that for either model: you connect a wallet, pay per prompt in USDC, and your prompt is encrypted to the operator (or hidden entirely in a hardware enclave with confidential mode), with a proof the real model ran.
The practical answer: run both
You don’t have to pick. On Halo you can send the same prompt to DeepSeek and a GPT-class model and compare — no subscription, no per-provider signup. Start with DeepSeek, or see how Halo works. Also worth a look: Qwen and Kimi.
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepSeek better than ChatGPT?
It depends on the task. DeepSeek matches or beats ChatGPT on many reasoning and coding benchmarks at a far lower cost, while ChatGPT (GPT-class models) still leads on some general and multimodal tasks. The honest answer is to try both on the same prompts.
Is DeepSeek cheaper than ChatGPT?
Yes, usually by a wide margin. On Halo there's no subscription for either — you pay per prompt in USDC — so you can run DeepSeek for a fraction of a ChatGPT Plus subscription and only pay for what you use.
Can I use both DeepSeek and ChatGPT without a subscription?
Yes. Halo is a marketplace of 140+ models. You connect a wallet once and can send prompts to DeepSeek, GPT-class models, and dozens of others — no account per provider, no monthly fee.
Which is more private?
On Halo, either model runs with your prompt encrypted to the operator, and confidential mode can hide it even from the operator inside a hardware enclave (TEE) — with a proof the real model ran. That's stronger than sending prompts to a single vendor's servers.