The diffusion mechanism of Si in GaAs was investigated using different diffusion sources based on the Si-Ga-As ternary phase equilibria. The Si profiles are measured with secondary ion mass spectrometry and differ significantly for sources taken from the different phase fields in the ternary phase diagram. Neutral As vacancy diffusion is proposed for acceptor Si diffusion anneals using a Ga - Si - GaAs source. Donor Si diffusion using As - rich sources and a Si -GaAs tie line source shows concentration dependent diffusion behavior. Concentration dependent diffusion coefficients of donor Si for As - rich source diffusion were found to be related to net ionized donor concentration and showed three regimes of different behavior: saturation regime, intermediate regime,and intrinsic regime. Ga vacancies are proposed to be responsible for donor Si diffusionin GaAs: $Si_Ga^+V_Ga^-$ (donor Si -acceptor Gavacancy) complex for the extrinsic regime and neutral $V_G$a, for the intrinsic regime.The Si - GaAs tie line source resulted in two branch profiles, intermediate between the As - rich and the Ga - rich source diffusion cases.