Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Max) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 20.0 points higher (56.0 vs 36.0) but costs 6.5× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $1122; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 36.0, and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Max) when 36.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 36.0 | −35.7% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 … is 35.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $1,122.27 | −84.5% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 … is 84.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 367.63s | 25.92s | −92.9% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 … is 92.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $1.32 / $3.96 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 35.7% less intelligence, 84.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 92.9% 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 V4 Pro 0813 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/deepseek-v4-pro · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/deepseek-v4-pro?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill