Compare · updated 2026-11-01
Claude Sonnet vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Claude Sonnet is better at writing, coding, reasoning, long documents; DeepSeek V4 Pro is better at quick answers, maths, structured data, translation. DeepSeek V4 Pro is the cheaper of the two on output.
Measured quality by task
| Task | Claude Sonnet | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick answers | 85/100 | 89/100 | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
| Writing | 93/100 | 88/100 | Claude Sonnet |
| Coding | 94/100 | 83/100 | Claude Sonnet |
| Reasoning | 90/100 | 76/100 | Claude Sonnet |
| Maths | 84/100 | 87/100 | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
| Structured data | 88/100 | 93/100 | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
| Long documents | 90/100 | 88/100 | Claude Sonnet |
| Translation | 86/100 | 89/100 | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
Quality is Nivana’s measured score for each kind of task, from weekly pairwise evals judged by models from several labs. Prices are live AI Gateway list prices per million tokens. Updated 2026-11-01. How this is measured.
Price and context
| Claude Sonnet | DeepSeek V4 Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Lab | Anthropic | DeepSeek |
| Input per 1M tokens | $2 | $0.66 |
| Output per 1M tokens | $10 | $1.98 |
| Typical chat answer | $0.010 | $0.00238 |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Router picks it for | 3 of 24 request types | Fallback only |
Which should you use?
Use the one that wins the kind of work you do most, unless the price gap outweighs the quality gap for easy requests. Or don’t choose: Nivana scores both, and the rest of the pool, on every request and sends it to whichever is best for that request.
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet better than DeepSeek V4 Pro?
On Nivana’s weekly evals Claude Sonnet scores higher on 4 of 8 task types (writing, coding, reasoning, long documents) and DeepSeek V4 Pro on 4 (quick answers, maths, structured data, translation). Neither is better at everything.
Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet or DeepSeek V4 Pro?
Claude Sonnet: 94/100 against 83/100 for DeepSeek V4 Pro on Nivana’s coding evals.
Which is better for writing, Claude Sonnet or DeepSeek V4 Pro?
Claude Sonnet: 93/100 against 88/100 for DeepSeek V4 Pro on Nivana’s writing evals.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet or DeepSeek V4 Pro?
DeepSeek V4 Pro: $1.98 per million output tokens against $10 for Claude Sonnet, about 5.1× less. A typical chat answer costs about $0.0024 on DeepSeek V4 Pro and $0.010 on Claude Sonnet.
Or let the router pick, per request
Nivana sends every message to the model that scores best for it, sets how hard it thinks, and tells you which one answered. 2,000 free credits to start, no card.