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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-R1 vs Claude Sonnet 3.7

Too close to call on our weighted score (DeepSeek-R1 51, Claude Sonnet 3.7 50). 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. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 3.7

    Released Feb 19, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI141.2
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 3.7

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (DeepSeek-R1 51/100, Claude Sonnet 3.7 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 3.7 for raw capability and DeepSeek-R1 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 3.7Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.7 141.2 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek-R1DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Claude Sonnet 3.7 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 3.7Claude Sonnet 3.7 200,000 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.7DeepSeek-R1: Text · Claude Sonnet 3.7: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-R1Claude Sonnet 3.7
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6467
Price25%4713
Inputs & features15%3570
Context window10%2432
Overall100%51/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

DeepSeek-R1 vs Claude Sonnet 3.7 specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-R1DeepSeekClaude Sonnet 3.7Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.0141.2 (best)
ECI rank#104 of 148#96 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.7%79.7% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics53.3%57.8% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—61.0%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70 (best)$3.00
Output$2.60 (best)$15.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$1.18 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersMedian of 3 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens64,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID——
API providers12 (best)3
ReleasedJan 20, 2025Feb 19, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJul 2024Oct 31, 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
  • Claude Sonnet 3.7$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-R1 or Claude Sonnet 3.7?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (DeepSeek-R1 51/100, Claude Sonnet 3.7 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 3.7 for raw capability and DeepSeek-R1 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1 or Claude Sonnet 3.7?

DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Claude Sonnet 3.7 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.18 per million tokens for DeepSeek-R1 versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.7 (5.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 3.7 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.7 141.2 (#96 of 148) and DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (138.7–142.9 vs 136.2–140.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 3.7 79.7%, DeepSeek-R1 71.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 3.7 57.8%, DeepSeek-R1 53.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-R1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 3.7 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 3.7 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768, Claude Sonnet 3.7 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek-R1 accepts text; Claude Sonnet 3.7 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 3.7 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek-R1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 3.7 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Claude Sonnet 3.7 is the newest, released Feb 19, 2025. DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: DeepSeek-R1 Jul 2024, Claude Sonnet 3.7 Oct 31, 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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