Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro benchmark

Name: Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Anthropic) and DeepSeek V4 Pro (DeepSeek) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, DeepSeek V4 Pro is ahead by 12 points (1,536 vs 1,524; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, DeepSeek V4 Pro resolves 71.6% versus 70.1% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Claude Sonnet 4.5 streams faster (88 tok/s) while DeepSeek V4 Pro is the cheaper output token ($0.87/1M). DeepSeek V4 Pro has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Workhorse Anthropic model: most of Opus coding quality at a mid-tier price.

Elo 1,524$15/1M out

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Open-weight-adjacent DeepSeek flagship. High reasoning density per dollar.

Elo 1,536$0.87/1M out

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Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs GPT-5

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2)vsDeepSeek V4 Pro (8)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 2W (20%)Overall: DeepSeek V4 ProDeepSeek V4 Pro: 8W (80%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5DeepSeek V4 Pro →

DeepSeek V4 Pro (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,524vs1,536

Coding Elo

1,531vs1,544

SWE-bench

70.1%vs71.6%

LiveBench

67.4%vs70.1%

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs84%

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WDeepSeek V4 Pro: 5W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs70 tok/s

Time to first token

240 msvs410 ms

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 2WDeepSeek V4 Pro: 0W

DeepSeek V4 Pro (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.87/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.44/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WDeepSeek V4 Pro: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageDeepSeek V4 Pro 5/6

Preference Elo

DeepSeek V4 Pro

12 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Sonnet 4.5

18 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek V4 Pro

$14.13/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,524

EloHigh is better

1,536+1%

Code Elo

High is better

1,531

Code EloHigh is better

1,544+1%

LiveBench

High is better

67.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

70.1%+4%

SWE-bench

High is better

70.1%

SWE-benchHigh is better

71.6%+2%

GPQA

High is better

80.2%

GPQAHigh is better

84%+5%

TTFT

Low is better

+71%240 ms

TTFTLow is better

410 ms

Speed

High is better

+26%88 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

70 tok/s

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$0.44/1M+590%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$0.87/1M+1624%

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

1M+5%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 91% with DeepSeek V4 Pro

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Sonnet 4.5$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

DeepSeek V4 Pro$28.28 / mo

In: $15.22Out: $13.05

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek V4 Pro is estimated to save $301.73/month ($3,621/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
DeepSeek V4 Pro:Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Claude Sonnet 4.5:Pick Claude Sonnet 4.5 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
DeepSeek V4 Pro:Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek V4 Pro

Higher SWE-bench (71.6%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V4 Pro

Lower output list price ($0.87/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4.5

Lower TTFT (240 ms).

Long-document RAGDeepSeek V4 Pro

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Higher SWE-bench (71.6%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Lower output list price ($0.87/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Lower TTFT (240 ms).
Long-document RAG	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

compareJun 13, 2026

DeepSeek vs Claude: the cheap-versus-frontier question, remapped

Top DeepSeek vs top Anthropic Elo. Usually V4 Pro vs Opus 5. License and invoice decide as much as Elo.

launchJun 12, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Pro: high reasoning density per dollar

2026-06 open-weight-adjacent flagship. The usual cheap-vs-Claude question starts here.

launchFeb 18, 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

Most of Opus 4.5 coding at a mid-tier price. Sonnet 5 replaced it as the buy; 4.5 remains a compare baseline.

launchJan 20, 2025

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Jan 2025 reasoning model. Still searched. V4 Pro is the newer DeepSeek buy.

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CompareLLM Matrix

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Elo 1,524

LiveBench67.4%

SWE-bench70.1%

Speed88 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Elo 1,536

LiveBench70.1%

SWE-bench71.6%

Speed70 tok/s

Output cost$0.87/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?: DeepSeek V4 Pro has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,536). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?: DeepSeek V4 Pro leads SWE-bench at 71.6% vs 70.1%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek V4 Pro output tokens are $0.87/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?: Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the lower time-to-first-token (240 ms vs 410 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: DeepSeek V4 Pro accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek V4 Pro is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and DeepSeek V4 Pro Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Sonnet 4.5 matchups →|All DeepSeek V4 Pro matchups →

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4 (previous sonnet)Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 (next sonnet)DeepSeek V4 Pro vs DeepSeek R1 (previous deepseek)DeepSeek V4 Pro vs DeepSeek V4 Flash (next deepseek)Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2)vsDeepSeek V4 Pro (8)

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 2W (20%)Overall: DeepSeek V4 ProDeepSeek V4 Pro: 8W (80%)

← Claude Sonnet 4.5DeepSeek V4 Pro →

DeepSeek V4 Pro (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,524vs1,536

Coding Elo

1,531vs1,544

SWE-bench

70.1%vs71.6%

LiveBench

67.4%vs70.1%

GPQA Diamond

80.2%vs84%

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WDeepSeek V4 Pro: 5W

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

88 tok/svs70 tok/s

Time to first token

240 msvs410 ms

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 2WDeepSeek V4 Pro: 0W

DeepSeek V4 Pro (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$0.87/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$0.44/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Sonnet 4.5: 0WDeepSeek V4 Pro: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek V4 Pro

Higher SWE-bench (71.6%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V4 Pro

Lower output list price ($0.87/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 4.5

Lower TTFT (240 ms).

Long-document RAGDeepSeek V4 Pro

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Higher SWE-bench (71.6%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Lower output list price ($0.87/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Lower TTFT (240 ms).
Long-document RAG	DeepSeek V4 Pro	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?

DeepSeek V4 Pro has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,536). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?

DeepSeek V4 Pro leads SWE-bench at 71.6% vs 70.1%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek V4 Pro output tokens are $0.87/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the lower time-to-first-token (240 ms vs 410 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

DeepSeek V4 Pro accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek V4 Pro is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and DeepSeek V4 Pro Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Claude Sonnet 4.5

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

DeepSeek vs Claude: the cheap-versus-frontier question, remapped

DeepSeek V4 Pro: high reasoning density per dollar

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Sonnet 4.5

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Claude Sonnet 4.5

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

DeepSeek vs Claude: the cheap-versus-frontier question, remapped

DeepSeek V4 Pro: high reasoning density per dollar

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the previous workhorse — still a valid vs baseline

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Sonnet 4.5

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons