Decision boundary
Do not start with which model is absolutely stronger. Start with the boundary: cost, context, speed, quality, ecosystem, or supply stability.
- DeepSeek V3.2 is worth checking first when the DeepSeek family, 163.8K context, and text->text capability match the job.
- Step-1o Vision is worth checking first when the Step Vision family, 128K context, and text+image->text capability match the job.