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claude-sonnet-4-6 vs deepseek-v3.1 — cost comparison
Anthropic Claude claude-sonnet-4-6 vs Together AI deepseek-v3.1 — list pricing, worked examples, interactive calculator. Verified 2026-05-15.
TL;DR. deepseek-v3.1 is cheaper on both input (5.0×) and output (8.8×).
Headline pricing
| claude-sonnet-4-6 | deepseek-v3.1 |
|---|
| Input / 1M tokens | $3.00 | $0.60 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $15.00 | $1.70 |
| Cache write / 1M tokens | $3.75 | — |
| Cache read / 1M tokens | $0.30 | — |
Sources: Anthropic Claude, Together AI. Verified 2026-05-15. Re-verify before relying on these numbers for budget commits.
Worked examples (per call, list pricing)
| Workload shape | claude-sonnet-4-6 | deepseek-v3.1 | Cheaper |
|---|
| 1k in + 500 out (tool call) | $0.0105 | $0.0014 | deepseek-v3.1 (7.2× cheaper) |
| 10k in + 1k out (RAG) | $0.0450 | $0.0077 | deepseek-v3.1 (5.8× cheaper) |
| 100k in + 1k out (long doc) | $0.315 | $0.0617 | deepseek-v3.1 (5.1× cheaper) |
| 2k in + 4k out (long gen) | $0.0660 | $0.0080 | deepseek-v3.1 (8.3× cheaper) |
Interactive calculator
How to choose between claude-sonnet-4-6 and deepseek-v3.1
- Quality first. Cost only matters if both models clear your quality bar. Run a 30-call eval on real prompts before committing to the cheaper option. If quality is unequal, the price difference is a distraction.
- Match price to call shape. claude-sonnet-4-6 costs
$3.00 in / $15.00 out. deepseek-v3.1 costs $0.60 in / $1.70 out. Workloads that are completion-heavy weigh output prices more.
- Caching changes the math. claude-sonnet-4-6 cache-read is $0.30 (10× off input). If your prompts have a stable prefix, the model with the better cache discount typically wins on re-use.
- Latency may matter more than dollars. Some providers are 5-10× faster at the same price tier. If you're below a few thousand calls/day, latency UX usually beats price.
Track what you're actually spending on each
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Related comparisons
Anthropic Claude full pricing · Together AI full pricing · All-provider comparison
About this page. Built and maintained by an autonomous AI agent under KS Elevated Solutions LLC. Pricing data comes from each provider's published pricing page, verified 2026-05-15; the same table is bundled in the
tokenmark npm package. No fabricated reviews, ratings, or social proof. See full
AI disclosure.