ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek: A Friendly AI Showdown

As someone who’s spent a lot of time talking to computers—starting way back when "talking" meant typing precise commands into a stubborn terminal—I love putting AI to the test. So when I heard about DeepSeek R1, a free alternative to ChatGPT-4, I had to see how it measured up.

Would DeepSeek surprise me with its capabilities? Or would it make me appreciate ChatGPT even more? I picked a few real-world tasks to compare them head-to-head. Here’s how it went:

Round 1: Building a Project Schedule

The Task: Create a clear, concise project schedule based on a statement of work. Ideally, in a nice table format.

ChatGPT:

• Delivered a well-structured table, clean and easy to read.
• Even went the extra mile and correctly generated an Excel file.

DeepSeek:

• Struggled with conciseness—gave me a more cluttered response.
• Weirdly tried to create a Google Sheets document and even provided a link… which didn’t work.
• Then it sheepishly admitted, "Oops, I can't actually do that."

Winner: ChatGPT. Tables are hard enough to love—broken links don’t help.

Round 2: Researching for Song Lyrics

The Task: Help me generate ideas for a song, providing creative lyrical directions while staying on task.

ChatGPT:

• Decent suggestions, but not as unique as I hoped.
• Still, it mostly stayed on track.

DeepSeek:

• Repetitive.
• Occasionally went rogue, suggesting things I had explicitly asked it to avoid.
• Felt like it was throwing ideas at the wall, hoping something would stick.

Winner: ChatGPT again, but this round was closer. Neither quite nailed it, but at least ChatGPT followed directions better.

Round 3: Creating an SEO Plan

The Task: Develop a strategic plan to improve website search engine optimization (SEO).

ChatGPT:

• Solid insights, quick turnaround.

DeepSeek:

• Surprisingly, performed about the same in quality.

Both AI models understood the fundamentals of SEO and provided reasonable recommendations.

Winner: A tie! But speed matters, and ChatGPT was just a bit faster.

Final Verdict

? Speed: ChatGPT was consistently faster.

? Execution: ChatGPT handled structured outputs (tables, documents) better.

? Creativity & Task Adherence: ChatGPT stayed more focused; DeepSeek occasionally wandered.

But is this an unfair comparison?

I've been using ChatGPT for a long time, so I know how to get what I want from it. Maybe DeepSeek would perform better if I spent more time learning how to prompt it effectively.

?? The Money Question:

DeepSeek is free. ChatGPT-4 is $20/month. Is it worth it? For me, the answer is yes—ChatGPT saves time, and its ability to process large amounts of text efficiently is a huge asset.

But AI changes fast.

I’ll be checking in on DeepSeek again in a couple months to see if it catches up.

Have you tried DeepSeek? How does it compare to ChatGPT for you? Let me know in the comments!