Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, 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 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 44.6 points higher (56.0 vs 11.4) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $461; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 11.4, and DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when 11.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 11.4 | −79.6% DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is 79.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $460.74 | −93.7% DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is 93.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 409.04s | 19.94s | −95.1% DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is 95.1% 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 (Max, Default Fallback): 79.6% less intelligence, 93.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 95.1% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- 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/deepseek-r1-0120 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/deepseek-r1-0120?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill