Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… scores 40.5 points higher (51.9 vs 11.4) but costs 4.7× as much to run the benchmark ($2177 vs $461; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… when you need intelligence above 11.4, and DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when 11.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.9 | 11.4 | −78.0% DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is 78.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,176.82 | $460.74 | −78.8% DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is 78.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.91s | 19.17s | −43.5% DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is 43.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $4.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 78.0% less intelligence, 78.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 43.5% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh/deepseek-r1-0120 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh/deepseek-r1-0120?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill