Why DeepSeek-R1 is Faster and Cheaper

Abhishekcur · x · 2026-07-08

The post explains why a 671B parameter model can be faster and cheaper per token than a dense 70B model. The core reason comes down to MoE and sparse parameter activation during inference: a single token only activates a subset of weights during the decode phase. Thus, inference cost depends primarily on the actual number of parameters read and written, rather than the total parameter count.

Related event: How DeepSeek-R1 Achieves Faster, Cheaper Inference(3 posts)→

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