DeepSeek R1 vs. Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 2025 AI Model Comparison | Merlio

In January 2025, DeepSeek R1, a newly developed AI model, captured significant attention in the AI market. Its outstanding performance quickly established it as a focal point in the industry, attracting numerous users and professionals.

However, some users have expressed differing opinions, particularly those familiar with Claude, claiming that DeepSeek R1 doesn't quite match Claude 3.5 Sonnet, especially in areas like deep reasoning and creativity.

This post provides a detailed comparison of DeepSeek R1 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. We'll examine each model's key features, architecture, text comprehension capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, and pricing, helping you determine which model best suits your needs. Whether you're a student, content creator, designer, developer, business leader, or AI enthusiast, this comparison will offer valuable insights.

What Is DeepSeek?

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup founded by Liang Wenfeng in May 2023, has developed two flagship open-source AI models: DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1. Each model is designed for specific applications.

DeepSeek R1 employs a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture. With an estimated training cost of $5.5 million, DeepSeek R1 comprises 671 billion parameters, with 37 billion activated for each token. It's designed for versatile applications, including content generation, chatbots, language translation, and other general AI-assisted tasks.

Building upon the foundation of V3, DeepSeek-R1 emerged as a significant AI player in January 2025. With an estimated training cost of $5.58 million, it shares the same AI core as V3 but is enhanced for complex reasoning and problem-solving. DeepSeek R1 excels in tasks requiring deep logical analysis, such as mathematical problem-solving, coding assistance, and scientific research.

DeepSeek models have demonstrated impressive performance on AI benchmarks. For example, DeepSeek-R1 achieved notable scores, including 90.8% on MMLU, 91.6% on DROP, 49.2% on SWE-bench Verified, and 97.3% on MATH-500.

What Is Claude?

Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees in 2021, developed Claude, an AI chatbot. Claude distinguishes itself with strengths in summarizing, collaborative writing, creative writing, and coding. Anthropic has released several major versions, including Claude 1.0 in March 2023, Claude 2 in July 2023, and Claude 3 in March 2024.

The latest version, Claude 3.5, boasts approximately 500 billion parameters, nearly three times more than Claude 2. It features a 200,000 token context window and can handle inputs exceeding 1 million tokens.

Claude is trained using Constitutional AI and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). It's currently available in 159 countries and has secured substantial funding, including $2 billion from Google and $4 billion from Amazon.

DeepSeek R1 vs. Claude 3.5 Sonnet: A Full Comparison

This section provides a detailed comparison of DeepSeek R1 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, highlighting their key differences to offer a comprehensive understanding of these advanced AI models.

Release Date

• DeepSeek R1: January 20, 2025

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: June 20, 2024

Model Types

• DeepSeek R1: Employs an open-source model with a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture, featuring 671 billion total parameters, with 37 billion active per token. It's well-suited for analyzing large datasets across industries like healthcare, finance, manufacturing, education, and research and development.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: Utilizes a proprietary architecture focused on safety and ethics, rather than an open-source model. It is designed for tasks such as writing long-form content, drafting regulatory documents, assisting with coding, and scientific reasoning. Claude offers other model types, including Opus and Haiku.

Ease of Use

• DeepSeek R1: Its open-source nature provides flexibility for users to customize and deploy the model according to their specific requirements. This is advantageous for researchers, developers, and users who need to modify the model.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: The user interface is designed to be intuitive and engaging, emphasizing ease of initiating conversations.

Text Comprehension

• DeepSeek R1: Demonstrates impressive capabilities in understanding complex tasks. For instance, when presented with a challenging physics problem, it exhibits strong logical reasoning and provides coherent explanations.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: Excels in detailed text comprehension, particularly when a nuanced understanding of text requirements is essential. In the same physics problem scenario, it can deliver a more precise and contextually appropriate response.

Performance

• DeepSeek R1: Achieves a 49.2% accuracy in HumanEval coding tasks and generates responses at a speed of up to 34 tokens per second. However, it may sometimes struggle with subtleties compared to specialized models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: Attains a remarkable 93.7% accuracy in coding evaluations and 65.0% in reasoning evaluations. It shows particular strength in tasks requiring deep reasoning and complex problem-solving. While its generation speed may not match DeepSeek R1, it maintains a strong balance between speed and accuracy.

Safety and Ethics

• DeepSeek R1: While its documentation acknowledges safety considerations, it provides fewer details compared to Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Although it emphasizes ethical use, it lacks the same level of specific mechanisms and evaluations to ensure safety and mitigate biases. Furthermore, a Red Teaming report indicated that DeepSeek R1 was 3.5 times more vulnerable than Claude-3-Opus.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: Claude 3.5 Sonnet undergoes extensive safety evaluations and is classified as AI Safety Level 2 (ASL-2). It employs classifiers to detect potential misuse and refuses to engage in harmful content.

Limitations

• DeepSeek R1: May sometimes default to conventional interpretations, indicating limitations in understanding complex and nuanced topics. Users may also encounter "server busy" errors, which can hinder its effectiveness in open dialogues. Additionally, there are ethical, legal, and political considerations surrounding the data used to train the models.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: May not always match the text generation speed of DeepSeek R1. It also lacks the flexibility and customization options offered by open-source models like DeepSeek R1. Users of Claude 3.5 Sonnet must adhere to Anthropic's API guidelines and infrastructure.

Pricing

• DeepSeek R1: Presents a cost-effective option. The input cost is $0.55 per million tokens, and the output cost is $2.19 per million tokens.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: Is priced higher, reflecting its focus on advanced features and safety. The input cost is $3.00 per million tokens, and the output cost is $15.00 per million tokens.

DeepSeek vs. Claude: Which One Is Better?

Both Claude and DeepSeek offer distinct strengths and weaknesses. DeepSeek is primarily designed for mathematical equations, structured reasoning, and logical analysis, making it well-suited for applications in finance, science, and engineering.

Claude emphasizes ethics and safety and excels at analyzing context and understanding long sentences. This makes it valuable for research, documentation, and in-depth discussions.

However, if you prioritize a powerful and affordable AI tool, DeepSeek may be the preferred choice.

Conclusion

The choice between DeepSeek and Claude depends on your specific budget and requirements. DeepSeek demonstrates strong performance in mathematical reasoning and efficient coding at a more affordable price. Conversely, Claude excels in coding tasks and offers a larger context window of 200,000 tokens. Both models have their own strengths and limitations.

We encourage you to explore both options to determine which best aligns with your needs.

FAQ

Q: What are the main differences between DeepSeek R1 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet?

A: DeepSeek R1 is an open-source model known for its strength in mathematical reasoning and cost-effectiveness. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is a proprietary model that prioritizes safety and excels in tasks requiring deep reasoning and complex problem-solving.

Q: Which AI model is better for coding?

A: Claude 3.5 Sonnet generally performs better in coding evaluations, achieving higher accuracy. However, DeepSeek R1 is also capable, especially for simpler coding tasks.

Q: Is DeepSeek R1 cheaper than Claude 3.5 Sonnet?

A: Yes, DeepSeek R1 is more cost-effective. Its input and output costs per million tokens are significantly lower than those of Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Q: Which model is better for long-form content creation?

A: Claude 3.5 Sonnet is generally preferred for long-form content creation due to its strong text comprehension and ability to handle larger context windows.

Q: Where can I try DeepSeek R1 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet?

A: You can access both DeepSeek R1 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet through various AI platforms and APIs, depending on the provider.