DeepSeek V3.5
DeepSeek · released 2025-12-01
Quality (AA Index)81
Input price$0.14
Output price$0.28
Context128K
Throughput95 tok/s
P50 latency1.5s
DeepSeek V3.5 vs Claude 4.6 Sonnet
Side-by-side pricing, capabilities, real-world cost across common scenarios, and our editorial pick.
Add a modelUp to 4 models can be compared
all prices in USD per 1M tokens
Claude 4.6 Sonnet
Anthropic · released 2026-04-08
Quality (AA Index)89
Input price$3.00
Output price$15.00
Context200K
Throughput85 tok/s
P50 latency1.1s
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Head-to-head specs
Green column = winner per metric| Metric | DeepSeek V3.5 | Claude 4.6 Sonnet | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
Input price /1M tokens | $0.14 | $3.00 | DeepSeek V3.5 −95% |
Output price /1M tokens | $0.28 | $15.00 | DeepSeek V3.5 −98% |
Context window max input length | 128K | 200K | Claude 4.6 Sonnet +1.6× |
AA Quality AA Intelligence Index (0–100) | 81 | 89 | Claude 4.6 Sonnet +8pt |
Arena Elo LMArena human-pref Elo (800–2000) | — | — | Tied |
Throughput tokens per second | 95 | 85 | DeepSeek V3.5 +12% |
P50 latency first token | 1.5s | 1.1s | Claude 4.6 Sonnet −27% |
Vision multimodal | — | ||
Function calling tool use | Tied | ||
Reasoning mode chain-of-thought | — |
Monthly cost across common scenarios
Default usage assumptions| Scenario | DeepSeek V3.5 | Claude 4.6 Sonnet |
|---|---|---|
customer support 1000K req · 600/180 tok | $134 | $4.5K |
chat with docs 300K req · 4000/300 tok | $193 | $5.0K |
code generation 500K req · 2000/500 tok | $210 | $6.8K |
voice assistant 600K req · 800/200 tok | $101 | $3.2K |
Our pick
For most workloads, choose DeepSeek V3.5.
- 95% cheaper input price, which compounds at scale
- 12% faster throughput — matters for streaming UX and voice agents
Roughly GPT-4o-class quality at roughly 90% off. Tradeoff is region availability (Chinese provider) and slower output throughput than Western frontier tiers.
Choose Claude 4.6 Sonnet instead if: Strongest non-OpenAI option for nuanced writing and code review; pricier than DeepSeek but more reliable refusal patterns for regulated industries.
Read our deep analysis
Why pick? Use both with smart routing
Phase 2 · gateway with fallback chainSet DeepSeek V3.5 as primary, Claude 4.6 Sonnet as fallback. One key, one bill, automatic failover when DeepSeek V3.5 errors.
PHASE 2 PREVIEW · gateway not live yetThis endpoint does not exist yet. The gateway is in Phase 2 — what you see below is a design preview of the planned interface, not a live API. We will email subscribers when it launches.
Preview the planned API call
$ curl https://api.aipricly.com/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AIPC_KEY" \
-d '{
"routing": {
"primary": "deepseek/deepseek-v3-5",
"fallback": ["anthropic/claude-4-6-sonnet"]
},
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}]
}'