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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-V3 vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 58 to 50 and 44 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3

    Released Dec 26, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI132.3
    • Price$0.32 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3
  2. Our pick

    Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

  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

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is our pick

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against DeepSeek-V3 (50) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on price and context window. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 · DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2
  • Lowest priceLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 · DeepSeek-V3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2DeepSeek-V3: Text · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-V3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (DeepSeek Model License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-V3Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%565657
Price25%646613
Inputs & features15%255060
Context window10%246032
Overall100%50/10058/10044/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

DeepSeek-V3 vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-V3DeepSeekLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMetaClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)132.3132.2133.5 (best)
ECI rank#121 of 148#122 of 148#119 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.5%67.0% (best)55.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics15.8%20.6% (best)8.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.32 (best)$0.321$3.00
Output$1.10$0.91 (best)$15.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.515$0.468 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 5 providersMedian of 6 providersMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenDeepSeek Model LicenseOpenProprietary
API model ID———
API providers56 (best)1
ReleasedDec 26, 2024Apr 5, 2025Oct 22, 2024
Knowledge cutoff—Aug 2024Apr 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-V3$5.40
  • Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
  • Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-V3, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against DeepSeek-V3 (50) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on price and context window. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.32 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); 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 $0.468 per million tokens for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct versus $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (1.1× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (13× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148), DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.2–137.5 vs 127.5–135.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, DeepSeek-V3 56.5%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%, DeepSeek-V3 15.8%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 8.5%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-V3, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 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?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 and 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek-V3 accepts text; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images; 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-V3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct publishes its weights (DeepSeek Model License) and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024, 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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