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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-R1 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 235B-A22B 51, DeepSeek-R1 51, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 44). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-R1

    Released Jan 20, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.0
    • Price$0.70 / $2.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-R1

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B

  3. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

    Released Oct 22, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI133.5
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 235B-A22B for raw capability, DeepSeek-R1 on price and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek-R1DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Qwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2DeepSeek-R1: Text · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-R1Qwen3 235B-A22BClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%646557
Price25%474613
Inputs & features15%353560
Context window10%242432
Overall100%51/10051/10044/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

DeepSeek-R1 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-R1DeepSeekQwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.0139.4 (best)133.5
ECI rank#104 of 148#103 of 148 (best)#119 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.7% (best)70.7%55.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics53.3% (best)—8.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70 (best)$0.70 (best)$3.00
Output$2.60 (best)$2.80$15.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$1.18 (best)$1.23$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens (best)16,384 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model ID—qwen3-235b-a22b—
API providers12 (best)71
ReleasedJan 20, 2025Apr 28, 2025Oct 22, 2024
Knowledge cutoffJul 2024Apr 2025Apr 30, 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • DeepSeek-R1$12.20
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
  • Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-R1, Qwen3 235B-A22B or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 235B-A22B for raw capability, DeepSeek-R1 on price and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1, Qwen3 235B-A22B or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Qwen3 235B-A22B costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.18 per million tokens for DeepSeek-R1 versus $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (1× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (5.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 235B-A22B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148), DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.2–140.8 vs 136.2–140.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek-R1 71.7%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-R1, Qwen3 235B-A22B and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B and 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek-R1 accepts text; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 235B-A22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is the newest, released Apr 28, 2025. DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: DeepSeek-R1 Jul 2024, Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 Apr 30, 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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