DeepSeek vs Claude API cost
Updated 2026-10-17. Prices from official pricing pages, quality ranks from LMArena.
DeepSeek is much cheaper per token. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is $0.30 input and $1.20 output per 1M tokens, and V4 Pro is $1.32 and $3.96, both half price off-peak. Claude runs from $0.50 and $2.50 (Haiku 5.5) to $4.00 and $20.00 (Opus 5.5). For a month of 30M input and 6M output, that is $16.20 on DeepSeek Flash vs $120.00 on Claude Sonnet 5.5, about 7x apart. Claude ranks higher on LMArena for coding and agents.
Price per 1M tokens, and a sample month
Direct list prices from DeepSeek and Anthropic, checked 2026-10-17. The sample month is 30M input and 6M output tokens with no caching, roughly a small app or one busy developer. DeepSeek prices shown are the peak rate.
| Model | Input | Output | Sample month |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | $0.30 | $1.20 | $16.20 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | $1.32 | $3.96 | $63.36 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | $0.50 | $2.50 | $30.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2.00 | $10.00 | $120.00 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $4.00 | $20.00 | $240.00 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | $10.00 | $50.00 | $600.00 |
When DeepSeek is cheaper still
DeepSeek charges half price off-peak. Peak hours are 01:00 to 04:00 and 06:00 to 10:00 UTC, Monday to Friday (9 PM to midnight and 2 AM to 6 AM US Eastern daylight time, Sunday night through Friday morning). Everything else is off-peak, including all weekend and Chinese public holidays. Cache hits are cheap too: $0.006 per 1M on V4.1 Flash and $0.044 on V4 Pro at peak, against $0.20 for Claude Opus 5.5 cache reads. Batch or overnight jobs get the most out of this.
What you give up for the lower price
Price is only half of it. On the LMArena leaderboards (community votes, LMArena leaderboard dataset, CC BY 4.0), the best Claude models rank above both DeepSeek models on every board below, though DeepSeek V4.1 Flash beats Claude Haiku 5.5 for coding and agents. Lower rank number is better. The gap is widest for coding and agents and narrow for everyday chat.
| Task | DS Flash | DS V4 Pro | Sonnet 5.5 | Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding (Code Arena) | #13 | #19 | #3 | #1 |
| Chat (Text Arena) | #15 | #17 | #14 | #3 |
| Creative writing | #16 | #15 | #10 | #1 |
| Math (Text Arena) | #11 | #18 | #7 | #6 |
| Agents (Agent Arena) | #16 | not listed | #6 | #1 |
Which to pick
- High volume, cost first (summaries, extraction, chatbots): DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. It costs a fraction of Claude Haiku 5.5 and ranks above it for coding.
- Coding agents and hard tasks: Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Opus 5.5. They lead the Code Arena and Agent Arena boards, and fewer retries can offset the higher price.
- Mixed setup: route easy calls to DeepSeek and send hard ones to Claude. DeepSeek offers an Anthropic-format API, so many tools built for Claude can point at it with a base URL change.
- Heavy daily Claude use: compare with a subscription first, since a Claude plan can work out far cheaper than paying per token.
Want other providers in the mix? The AI API price table covers OpenAI, Google, Qwen, Mistral, xAI and Meta too, and the plan vs API calculator shows when a subscription beats paying per token.
FAQ
Is DeepSeek cheaper than Claude?
Yes, by a wide margin at list price. Our sample month (30M input, 6M output) costs $16.20 on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and $63.36 on V4 Pro at peak rates, vs $30.00 on Claude Haiku 5.5, $120.00 on Sonnet 5.5 and $240.00 on Opus 5.5.
How much does the DeepSeek API cost per 1M tokens?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is $0.30 input, $1.20 output and $0.006 for cache hits. V4 Pro is $1.32, $3.96 and $0.044. These are peak rates; off-peak is half, per DeepSeek's pricing page as of 2026-10-17.
When are DeepSeek off-peak hours?
Peak hours are 01:00 to 04:00 and 06:00 to 10:00 UTC on weekdays, excluding Chinese public holidays. All other hours are off-peak at half price, including weekends.
Is DeepSeek as good as Claude for coding?
Not on LMArena's Code Arena right now: Claude Opus 5.5 is #1 and Sonnet 5.5 #3, while DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is #13. Flash does rank above Claude Haiku 5.5 (#15). Leaderboard ranks shift, so test on your own tasks.
Can I use DeepSeek in tools built for Claude?
DeepSeek offers an Anthropic-format API endpoint alongside its OpenAI-format one, so many Claude-compatible tools can switch with a base URL and key change. Check each tool's docs for support.
Is a Claude subscription cheaper than the Claude API?
For steady daily use it often is. Claude Pro and Max include a usage allowance for a flat monthly price, while the API bills every token. Our plan vs API calculator compares the two for your usage.
Related
- DeepSeek API pricing
- Anthropic (Claude) API pricing
- All AI API prices
- Best model for coding
- Claude Pro vs paying for the API
- Claude Max vs paying for the API
- Is Claude Max worth it?
- Source: DeepSeek pricing
- Source: Anthropic pricing
More guides
- ChatGPT limits explained
- Codex limits explained
- Claude limits explained
- Claude Code limits explained
- Cursor limits explained
- Grok limits explained
Not sure a plan beats the API for you? Try the plan vs API cost calculator.