AllocateDeepSeek V4 vs Claude Sonnet 5
On provider list prices, DeepSeek V4 costs $1.74 per million input tokens against $3 for Claude Sonnet 5: 1.7x apart. Output is $3.48 against $15 (4.3x).
DeepSeek V4
Claude Sonnet 5Specifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-21.
What the numbers say
Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $3,306 a month on DeepSeek V4 and $8,850 on Claude Sonnet 5 at list: a gap of $5,544, or 2.7x.
Claude Sonnet 5 reads 1M tokens per request against 512K for DeepSeek V4, 2.0x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.
Choose DeepSeek V4 for
- Reasoning-heavy agents
- Long-document analysis
- Cost-sensitive production routes
Choose Claude Sonnet 5 for
- Judgment calls with policy context
- Customer-facing writing
- Review and escalation flows
Common questions
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 or Claude Sonnet 5?
DeepSeek V4, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $1.74/$3.48 per million tokens in and out against $3/$15 for Claude Sonnet 5. Billed on Allocate: $1.86/$3.72 against $3.21/$16.05.
Which has the bigger context window?
Claude Sonnet 5: 1,000,000 tokens (1M) against 512,000 (512K) for DeepSeek V4.
Can I fine-tune DeepSeek V4 or Claude Sonnet 5?
No. Both are closed models served over API. If you want a model you can train and own, start from an open-weights base in the catalog.
Related comparisons
Run the numbers on your workload
Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.