Skip to main content

Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs DeepSeek-R1

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 9 shared benchmark results across 3 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

65.32/100
Margin
13.6pts
← winning
DeepSeek
51.67/100
0 category wins0 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated); DeepSeek-R1 #103 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 5 and DeepSeek-R1 share 9 comparable benchmark results. 0 of 8 categories are comparable. 27 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 5; 2 to DeepSeek-R1.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
9
Claude Sonnet 5 only
27
DeepSeek-R1 only
2
Comparable categories
0 / 8

Benchmark data for Claude Sonnet 5 and DeepSeek-R1 is coming soon on BenchLM.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 9 shared benchmark results across 3 evidence categories; 0 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

BenchLM has partial data for these models, but not enough overlapping benchmark coverage to produce a fair score-level comparison yet.

Claude Sonnet 5 is priced at $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.55 input / $2.19 output per 1M tokens for DeepSeek-R1. Claude Sonnet 5 has the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for DeepSeek-R1.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude Sonnet 5 and DeepSeek-R1
CategoryClaude Sonnet 5ΔDeepSeek-R1
AgenticClaude Sonnet 581.9MarginNo overlapDeepSeek-R1Not measured
CodingClaude Sonnet 576.7MarginNo overlapDeepSeek-R1Not measured
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 557.4MarginNo overlapDeepSeek-R1Not measured
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 588.3MarginNo overlapDeepSeek-R1Not measured

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude Sonnet 5DeepSeek-R1Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 outputDeepSeek-R1$0.55 input / $2.19 outputDeepSeek-R1 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Sonnet 5Not availableDeepSeek-R1Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Sonnet 5Not availableDeepSeek-R1Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Sonnet 51MDeepSeek-R1128KClaude Sonnet 5 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5DeepSeek-R1Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%Not comparable
BrowseCompSource 84.7%Not comparable
HLE w/ toolsSource 57.4%Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 81.2%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 1607Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 46.7%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 55.4%Not comparable
AA BriefcaseSource 1388Not comparable
AA AutomationBenchSource 39.2%Not comparable
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource 44.7%Not comparable
AA Harvey LABSource 90.1%Not comparable
AA Tau3 BankingSource 28.2%Not comparable
aaTerminalBench21Source 80.5%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 36.5%Not comparable
Coding
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5DeepSeek-R1Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 85.2%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 63.2%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 78.3%Not comparable
SWE MultimodalSource 28.1%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%Not comparable
FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource 42.7%Not comparable
cursorBench32Source 61.5%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 71.5%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 53.6%40.3%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5DeepSeek-R1Result
AA-LCRSource 70.7%54.7%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
CritPtSource 16.9%1.4%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
Knowledge
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5DeepSeek-R1Result
HLESource 57.4%Not comparable
HLE w/o toolsSource 43.2%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 53.4%20.1%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 91.1%81.3%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-HLESource 39.6%14.9%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 15.3%-27.1%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 38.3%31.0%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 37.3%84.0%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5DeepSeek-R1Result
CharXivSource 88.3%Not comparable
CharXiv w/o toolsSource 77%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 77.3%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1314Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5DeepSeek-R1Result
AA-IFBenchSource 39.6%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (3)

Can I compare Claude Sonnet 5 and DeepSeek-R1 on BenchLM yet?

Not fully yet. BenchLM is tracking both models, but the sourced benchmark breakdown for this comparison is still coming soon.

Why does this comparison show “coming soon”?

BenchLM only shows category winners and benchmark-level calls when we have sourced results that can be compared fairly. For these models, the public benchmark coverage is not complete enough yet.

What data is available for Claude Sonnet 5 and DeepSeek-R1 today?

Claude Sonnet 5: $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens DeepSeek-R1: $0.55 input / $2.19 output per 1M tokens Both model pages still include creator, context window, reasoning mode, and other metadata while benchmark coverage fills in.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

Claude Sonnet 5
API / mo$9,000
Self-host / moNot listed
Break-even
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
DeepSeek-R1
API / mo$2,055
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even583M/day
Model the full break-even

Related Comparisons

Last updated: July 23, 2026

Choose a model with this week’s evidence

Join 2,000+ readers for ranking moves, pricing changes, and the claims that still need proof.

One email each week. Unsubscribe anytime.