DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs LongCat 2.0
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek or LongCat 2.0 by LongCat? 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
LongCat 2.0 scores 10.6 points higher (19.1 vs 8.5) but costs 21× as much to run the benchmark ($545 vs $25.4; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick LongCat 2.0 when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | LongCat 2.0 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 19.1 | +124.7% LongCat 2.0 is 2.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $544.74 | +2047.2% LongCat 2.0 is 21× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.84s | 35.51s | +199.9% LongCat 2.0 is 199.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $0.75 / $2.95 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
LongCat 2.0 vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 124.7% more intelligence, 2047.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 199.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- LongCat 2.0 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)LongCat 2.0Today'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/deepseek-v3/longcat-2-0 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3/longcat-2-0?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill