Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek R1 benchmark

Name: Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek R1 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Sonnet 5 (Anthropic) and DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead by 198 points (1,556 vs 1,358; seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Sonnet 5 resolves 73.8% versus 65.2% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). Claude Sonnet 5 streams faster (118 tok/s) while DeepSeek R1 is the cheaper output token ($2.5/1M). Claude Sonnet 5 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 5

Anthropic workhorse. Official $2/$10 per 1M tokens made permanent on Aug 10 2026.

Elo 1,556$10/1M out

DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1

Open-weights reasoning model trained with large-scale RL.

Elo 1,358$2.5/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 5 (8)vsDeepSeek R1 (2)

Claude Sonnet 5: 8W (80%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 5DeepSeek R1: 2W (20%)

← Claude Sonnet 5DeepSeek R1 →

Claude Sonnet 5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,556vs1,358

Coding Elo

1,562vs—

SWE-bench

73.8%vs65.2%

LiveBench

70.4%vs59%

GPQA Diamond

82.8%vs79.8%

Claude Sonnet 5: 5WDeepSeek R1: 0W

Claude Sonnet 5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

118 tok/svs62 tok/s

Time to first token

175 msvs420 ms

Claude Sonnet 5: 2WDeepSeek R1: 0W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$10/1Mvs$2.5/1M

Input price

$2/1Mvs$0.7/1M

Context window

1Mvs64k

Claude Sonnet 5: 1WDeepSeek R1: 2W

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 AdvantageClaude Sonnet 5 5/6

Preference Elo

Claude Sonnet 5

198 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Claude Sonnet 5

56 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek R1

$7.50/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+15%1,556

EloHigh is better

1,358

Code Elo

High is better

1,562

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

+19%70.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

59%

SWE-bench

High is better

+13%73.8%

SWE-benchHigh is better

65.2%

GPQA

High is better

+4%82.8%

GPQAHigh is better

79.8%

TTFT

Low is better

+140%175 ms

TTFTLow is better

420 ms

Speed

High is better

+90%118 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

62 tok/s

In $

Low is better

$2/1M

In $Low is better

$0.7/1M+186%

Out $

Low is better

$10/1M

Out $Low is better

$2.5/1M+300%

Context

High is better

+1463%1M

ContextHigh is better

64k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 72% with DeepSeek R1

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 5$220.00 / mo

In: $70.00Out: $150.00

DeepSeek R1$62.00 / mo

In: $24.50Out: $37.50

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek R1 is estimated to save $158.00/month ($1,896/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Sonnet 5:Pick Claude Sonnet 5 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
DeepSeek R1:Pick DeepSeek R1 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Claude Sonnet 5:Pick Claude Sonnet 5 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 5

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 5

Lower TTFT (175 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 5

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 5	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 5	Lower TTFT (175 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 5	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 5	Claude Sonnet 5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

compareAug 10, 2026

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Usually Sonnet 5 vs Opus 5. Coding delta versus output $/1M. The workhorse question.

priceAug 10, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5 at $2/$10: the 2026 Anthropic workhorse

Aug 10 2026 made the $2/$10 list permanent. Sonnet is the default Claude unless the repo is actually on fire.

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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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Sonnet 5

Elo 1,556

LiveBench70.4%

SWE-bench73.8%

Speed118 tok/s

Output cost$10/1M

DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1

Elo 1,358

LiveBench59%

SWE-bench65.2%

Speed62 tok/s

Output cost$2.5/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 5 or DeepSeek R1?: Claude Sonnet 5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,556). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 5 or DeepSeek R1?: Claude Sonnet 5 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 65.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $10/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 5 or DeepSeek R1?: Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower time-to-first-token (175 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Sonnet 5 accepts 1M tokens versus 64k.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek R1 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 5 and DeepSeek R1 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Sonnet 5 matchups →|All DeepSeek R1 matchups →

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 (previous sonnet)DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek V3 (previous deepseek)DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro (next deepseek)Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5 Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 5 DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek R1 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Sonnet 5 (8)vsDeepSeek R1 (2)

Claude Sonnet 5: 8W (80%)Overall: Claude Sonnet 5DeepSeek R1: 2W (20%)

← Claude Sonnet 5DeepSeek R1 →

Claude Sonnet 5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,556vs1,358

Coding Elo

1,562vs—

SWE-bench

73.8%vs65.2%

LiveBench

70.4%vs59%

GPQA Diamond

82.8%vs79.8%

Claude Sonnet 5: 5WDeepSeek R1: 0W

Claude Sonnet 5 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

118 tok/svs62 tok/s

Time to first token

175 msvs420 ms

Claude Sonnet 5: 2WDeepSeek R1: 0W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$10/1Mvs$2.5/1M

Input price

$2/1Mvs$0.7/1M

Context window

1Mvs64k

Claude Sonnet 5: 1WDeepSeek R1: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Sonnet 5

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIClaude Sonnet 5

Lower TTFT (175 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Sonnet 5

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Sonnet 5	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Claude Sonnet 5	Lower TTFT (175 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Sonnet 5	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Sonnet 5	Claude Sonnet 5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Sonnet 5 or DeepSeek R1?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,556). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Sonnet 5 or DeepSeek R1?

Claude Sonnet 5 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 65.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $10/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 5 or DeepSeek R1?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the lower time-to-first-token (175 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5 accepts 1M tokens versus 64k.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek R1 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 5 and DeepSeek R1 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

Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Claude Sonnet 5 at $2/$10: the 2026 Anthropic workhorse

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 5

DeepSeek R1

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

Claude Sonnet 5

Claude Sonnet 5

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Sonnet vs Opus in 2026: same family, different invoice

Claude Sonnet 5 at $2/$10: the 2026 Anthropic workhorse

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 5

DeepSeek R1

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons