AI model APIs · head-to-head
Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Same usage, official rates, ranked by nothing but price. Both rate cards, the monthly bill at five workloads, and the exact usage mix where the answer flips.
The pricing verdict DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5 at every input:output mix — there is no usage pattern where Claude Sonnet 5 costs less.
Rate cards
| Per 1M tokens | Claude Sonnet 5 | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $2 | $1.32 |
| Cached input | $0.20 | $0.044 |
| Output | $10 | $3.96 |
| Context window | 1M | — |
Monthly cost at five workloads
| Workload | Tokens / month | Claude Sonnet 5 | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype | 1M in · 0.3M out | $5 | $2.51 |
| Small app | 10M in · 3M out | $50 | $25.1 |
| Production app | 50M in · 15M out | $250 | $125 |
| High volume | 200M in · 60M out | $1,000 | $502 |
| Heavy platform | 1B in · 300M out | $5,000 | $2,508 |
Standard on-demand rates from each provider's official pricing page, verified July 2026; figures exclude caching and batch discounts and any long-context surcharges. Claude Sonnet 5: These are the introductory rates Anthropic actually bills through Aug 31, 2026. Standard pricing of $3 in / $0.30 cached / $15 out takes effect Sept 1, 2026 — a 50% increase, so budget beyond August at the higher rate. DeepSeek V4 Pro: Cache-hit input bills at $0.044 per 1M at peak ($0.022 off-peak). Figures use PEAK rates. DeepSeek bills by time of day: peak is 01:00-04:00 and 06:00-10:00 UTC, and off-peak (the other 17 hours) is half these prices. We publish peak so the figure can never understate a bill; halve it for off-peak traffic. Price is one input — quality, latency and context limits differ. Confirm live pricing before committing.