Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R2 or Claude 4.6 Sonnet?

DeepSeek R2 is cheaper at the input + output rate combined: $2.75 versus $18.00 per million tokens.

Which has higher quality, DeepSeek R2 or Claude 4.6 Sonnet?

Claude 4.6 Sonnet has the higher AA Intelligence Index score: 89 versus 86.

Can I switch between DeepSeek R2 and Claude 4.6 Sonnet via one API?

Both DeepSeek R2 and Claude 4.6 Sonnet are accessible through OpenRouter's unified gateway, which lets you switch models with one API key. Phase 2 of AIpricly will add scenario-routed automatic primary + fallback chains.

DeepSeek R2 vs Claude 4.6 Sonnet

Side-by-side pricing, capabilities, real-world cost across common scenarios, and our editorial pick.

添加模型最多可对比 4 个模型

全部价格按美元 / 百万 token 计

OVERALL WINNER

DeepSeek R2

DeepSeek · released 2026-02-15

Quality (AA Index)86

Input price$0.55

Output price$2.20

Context128K

Throughput110 tok/s

P50 latency1.2s

View full pricing

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

View full pricing

通过 OpenRouter 试用 DeepSeek R2 通过 OpenRouter 试用 Claude 4.6 Sonnet

链接通过我们的 OpenRouter 推荐链接在新标签页打开。查看推广披露

规格对比

绿色列 = 该指标获胜方

Metric	DeepSeek R2	Claude 4.6 Sonnet	Verdict
Input price /百万 tokens	$0.55	$3.00	DeepSeek R2 −82%
Output price /百万 tokens	$2.20	$15.00	DeepSeek R2 −85%
Context window max input length	128K	200K	Claude 4.6 Sonnet +1.6×
AA Quality AA Intelligence Index (0–100)	86	89	Claude 4.6 Sonnet +3pt
Arena Elo LMArena human-pref Elo (800–2000)	—	—	Tied
Throughput tokens per second	110	85	DeepSeek R2 +29%
P50 latency first token	1.2s	1.1s	Claude 4.6 Sonnet −8%
Vision multimodal	—
Function calling tool use			Tied
Reasoning mode chain-of-thought			Tied

常见场景月度费用

默认用量假设

Scenario	DeepSeek R2	Claude 4.6 Sonnet
customer support 1000K req · 600/180 tok	$726	$4.5K
chat with docs 300K req · 4000/300 tok	$858	$5.0K
code generation 500K req · 2000/500 tok	$1.1K	$6.8K
voice assistant 600K req · 800/200 tok	$528	$3.2K

Our pick

For most workloads, choose DeepSeek R2.

82% cheaper input price, which compounds at scale
29% faster throughput — matters for streaming UX and voice agents

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.

阅读完整深度分析

为何选择？通过智能路由同时使用两者

第二阶段 · 带故障转移链的网关

Set DeepSeek R2 as primary, Claude 4.6 Sonnet as fallback. One key, one bill, automatic failover when DeepSeek R2 errors.

第二阶段预览 · 网关尚未上线该接口目前不存在。网关计划在第二阶段上线——下面只是规划中的接口形态预览，不是可用的 API。上线时会通过 newsletter 通知订阅者。

查看计划中的 API 调用形态

$ curl https://api.aipricly.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIPC_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "routing": {
      "primary": "deepseek/deepseek-r2",
      "fallback": ["anthropic/claude-4-6-sonnet"]
    },
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "..."}]
  }'