DeepSeek-R1 vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B
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.
DeepSeekDeepSeek-R1
51/100- ECI139.0
- Price$0.70 / $2.60
- Context128K
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2
44/100- ECI133.5
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B
51/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.70 / $2.80
- Context131K
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 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek-R1 | Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 | Qwen3 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 64 | 57 | 65 |
| Price | 25% | 47 | 13 | 46 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 60 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 32 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 44/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | DeepSeek-R1DeepSeek | Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic | Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 139.0 | 133.5 | 139.4 (best) |
| ECI rank | #104 of 148 | #119 of 148 | #103 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 71.7% (best) | 55.3% | 70.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 53.3% (best) | 8.5% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.70 (best) | $3.00 | $0.70 (best) |
| Output | $2.60 (best) | $15.00 | $2.80 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.18 (best) | $6.00 | $1.23 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 11 providers | Median of 1 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | qwen3-235b-a22b |
| API providers | 12 (best) | 1 | 7 |
| Released | Jan 20, 2025 | Oct 22, 2024 | Apr 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jul 2024 | Apr 30, 2024 | Apr 2025 |
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
- Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
- Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek-R1, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?
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, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?
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, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 and Qwen3 235B-A22B 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, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
DeepSeek-R1 accepts text; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text. 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, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 Apr 30, 2024, Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025.
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.
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