Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs DeepSeek-V3
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
Claude 3.7 Sonnet specs · DeepSeek-V3 specs- PriceDeepSeek-V3
DeepSeek-V3 is roughly 13.6× cheaper on output tokens ($1.10 vs $15.00 per 1M).
- Context windowClaude 3.7 Sonnet
Claude 3.7 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksClaude 3.7 Sonnet
Claude 3.7 Sonnet leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 92.0 vs 90.0.
- ModalitiesClaude 3.7 Sonnet
Claude 3.7 Sonnet supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for DeepSeek-V3.
- OpennessDeepSeek-V3
DeepSeek-V3 ships open weights (MIT); Claude 3.7 Sonnet is API-only.
On balance Claude 3.7 Sonnet edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against DeepSeek-V3's 2. DeepSeek-V3 is roughly 13.6× cheaper on output tokens ($1.10 vs $15.00 per 1M). Claude 3.7 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
Claude 3.7 Sonnet leads in 1 of 1 shared benchmarks; the biggest gap is on HumanEval (Python coding), where it scores 92.0 vs 90.0. They differ in modality coverage, Claude 3.7 Sonnet handles text, vision while DeepSeek-V3 handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. DeepSeek-V3 ships open weights (MIT); Claude 3.7 Sonnet is API-only.
Claude 3.7 Sonnet is the newer of the two, released 2 months after DeepSeek-V3, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude 3.7 Sonnet is usually picked for coding llm and creative writing workloads, while DeepSeek-V3 sees more deployments in open source llm and commercial use llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude 3.7 Sonnet | DeepSeek-V3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | DeepSeek |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Dec 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | $0.27 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | $1.10 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-10 | 2024-07 |
| Open weights | No | Yes (MIT) |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs $2.46
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs $24.60
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs $47.10
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $31.50 vs $2.46 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $315 vs $24.60 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $540 vs $47.10 per month, model B comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Claude 3.7 Sonnet$1.05
- DeepSeek-V3$0.082
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU,88.5
- HumanEval92.090.0
- SWE-bench Verified62.3
Claude 3.7 Sonnet fits when…
- First Claude with extended thinking
- Excellent writing and coding quality
- Mature, widely-tested
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for DeepSeek-V3.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
DeepSeek-V3 fits when…
- Frontier-level quality at open-weight prices
- MIT license, clean commercial use
- Cheap to serve via MoE architecture
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 13.6× cheaper than Claude 3.7 Sonnet on output tokens.
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (MIT).
Consider Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.
Frequently asked
Is Claude 3.7 Sonnet or DeepSeek-V3 cheaper?
DeepSeek-V3 is cheaper at $1.10 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $15.00 / 1M tokens for Claude 3.7 Sonnet.Which has the larger context window?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for DeepSeek-V3.Is Claude 3.7 Sonnet or DeepSeek-V3 better for coding?
Both Claude 3.7 Sonnet and DeepSeek-V3 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
DeepSeek-V3 ships open weights (MIT). Claude 3.7 Sonnet is API-only.When were Claude 3.7 Sonnet and DeepSeek-V3 released?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet was released by Anthropic on 2025-02-24. DeepSeek-V3 was released by DeepSeek on 2024-12-26.
The week's AI launches, in your inbox.
One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.