Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 7.8 points higher (38.2 vs 30.4) but costs 25× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $277; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 30.4, and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) when 30.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 30.4 | −20.4% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 20.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $277.30 | −96.0% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 96.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 190.29s | 48.02s | −74.8% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 74.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.43 / $0.87 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 20.4% less intelligence, 96.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 74.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) 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 0424 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/deepseek-v4-pro-0424 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/deepseek-v4-pro-0424?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill