Skip to content
VECTOR WIREAI INTELLIGENCE
⌘K
UTC
Models741Deals30d271Policy30d66, 14 pendingSources1,015

Claude Sonnet 4 vs DeepSeek-V3.1

Anthropic · released

Wins 3 of 6 areas

Coding · Long documents · Following instructions

DeepSeek · released

Wins 2 of 6 areas

Reasoning · Facts

Claude Sonnet 4 wins more areas, narrowly.DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper and better at reasoning.

Scores updated · 35 tests both models report · How we compare

Where each one wins

Tests won in each of the six areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.

Long documents rests on a single test.

What it costs

Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.

Claude Sonnet 4$3.00 to read · $15.00 to write$18Price from anthropic
DeepSeek-V3.1$0.56 to read · $1.68 to write$2.24Price from Artificial Analysis

DeepSeek-V3.1 costs 88% less for the same work.

The biggest differences

The three tests each model wins by the widest margin. Scores are out of 100.

Where Claude Sonnet 4 pulls ahead

  • Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+53.4points aheadClaude Sonnet 470.9DeepSeek-V3.117.5
  • Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+13.6points aheadClaude Sonnet 470.3DeepSeek-V3.156.7
  • Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+13.2points aheadClaude Sonnet 454.7DeepSeek-V3.141.5

Where DeepSeek-V3.1 pulls ahead

  • Finds hard-to-locate facts by browsing the webBrowseComp+17.8points aheadDeepSeek-V3.130Claude Sonnet 412.2
  • Answers hard knowledge questions correctlyAA-Omniscience · Accuracy+6.3points aheadDeepSeek-V3.129Claude Sonnet 422.7
  • Very hard expert questions across many subjectsHumanity's Last Exam+3.6points aheadDeepSeek-V3.114.3Claude Sonnet 410.7

Every test, side by side

All 35 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.

CodingClaude Sonnet 4

Full coding ranking

AgentsEven
  • BrowseCompDeepSeek-V3.1 by 17.812.230+17.8
  • GDPValClaude Sonnet 4 by 4.19.75.6+4.1

Full agents ranking

ReasoningDeepSeek-V3.1

Full reasoning ranking

FactsDeepSeek-V3.1

Full facts ranking

Long documentsClaude Sonnet 4
  • AA-LCRClaude Sonnet 4 by 13.670.356.7+13.6

Full long documents ranking

Following instructionsClaude Sonnet 4

Full following instructions ranking

Other results19 tests, not counted

Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.

Questions people ask

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4 or DeepSeek-V3.1?

Claude Sonnet 4 wins three of the six areas where both have results: coding, long documents and following instructions. DeepSeek-V3.1 wins reasoning and facts, and costs 88% less. They are level on agents.

Which is better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 4. It wins 3 of the 4 coding tests both models report; DeepSeek-V3.1 wins none, and 1 is a tie.

Which is cheaper?

Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-V3.1 costs $0.56 and $1.68. That makes DeepSeek-V3.1 about 88% cheaper for the same work.

How do you compare the two?

We use the 35 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 16 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 19 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.

Compare Claude Sonnet 4 with

Anthropic

Across the field

All comparisons