DeepSeek vs Claude

As of 2026-07-18, Claude (Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.8 (Fast), 8.3/10) is among the best models in our daily benchmark. DeepSeek is not among them today — we evaluate over 350 models and present the strongest.

This is the comparison where the price gap is extreme. DeepSeek costs a fraction of Claude per token. The question is what you give up in quality — and on Scandinavian languages the answer is more nuanced than in English.

DeepSeek

Not among today’s best

The model is evaluated, but does not reach the top today.

Context: 1M

$0.10

Anthropic

Claude

Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.8 (Fast)

Score: 8.3/10

Language: 9.3/10

Speed: 131 t/s

$10.00

Side by side

	DeepSeek	Claude
In today’s benchmark	Not among today’s best	Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.8 (Fast)
Score	—	8.3/10
Language	—	9.3/10
Speed	—	131 t/s
Input price/1M	$0.10	$10.00

What separates them?

Claude is among the strongest models on Scandinavian language quality and on long, coherent reasoning. DeepSeek is very strong on code and maths at a price that means you barely have to think about cost. On Scandinavian text the gap is usually noticeable — see the language score in the table for what it is today.

Privacy is a real difference

DeepSeek is a Chinese company, and data sent to their service is processed outside the EU. For a Scandinavian organisation handling personal data or commercially sensitive information, that alone is reason to choose something else, whatever the benchmark says. For open source, learning and non-sensitive prototyping, DeepSeek is an excellent buy.

hvilkenAI is independent. We have no affiliate agreements, sponsored placements or commercial ties to the AI providers we test. The numbers above come from today’s benchmark.

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek as good as Claude?

On code and maths it is close. On Scandinavian text Claude is usually stronger. See the numbers in the table above — they update daily.

How much cheaper is DeepSeek?

The prices in the table are fetched daily and show the difference per million tokens. It is large enough to change what is economically possible to build.

Is DeepSeek safe to use?

Not for personal data or sensitive business information without an approved data processing agreement. For publicly available content and experimentation it is unproblematic.