Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4 vs DeepSeek VL2Which is better in 2026?

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude Sonnet 4 vs DeepSeek VL2 — which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4 (by Anthropic) and DeepSeek VL2 (by DeepSeek) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude Sonnet 4 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMMU), while DeepSeek VL2 is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4 also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Choose Claude Sonnet 4 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped May 2025

Choose DeepSeek VL2 if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMMU), while DeepSeek VL2 is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jun 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 4 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to DeepSeek VL2's 129,280 tokens. DeepSeek VL2 can generate longer responses up to 129,280 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4 is limited to 64,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
DeepSeek
DeepSeek VL2
Input129,280 tokens
Output129,280 tokens
Sat Jun 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Claude Sonnet 4 and DeepSeek VL2 support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Claude Sonnet 4

Text
Images
Audio
Video

DeepSeek VL2

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4 is licensed under a proprietary license, while DeepSeek VL2 uses deepseek.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude Sonnet 4

Proprietary

Closed source

DeepSeek VL2

deepseek

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4 was released on 2025-05-22, while DeepSeek VL2 was released on 2024-12-13.

Claude Sonnet 4 is 5 months newer than DeepSeek VL2.

Claude Sonnet 4

May 22, 2025

1.0 years ago

5mo newer
DeepSeek VL2

Dec 13, 2024

1.5 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 4 is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. DeepSeek VL2 is available from Replicate.

Claude Sonnet 4

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

DeepSeek VL2

replicate logo
Replicate
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Higher MMMU score (74.4% vs 51.1%)
DeepSeek
Has open weights
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4
DeepSeekDeepSeek VL2
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4
DeepSeek
DeepSeek VL2

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4 vs DeepSeek VL2.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4 or DeepSeek VL2?

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4 is made by Anthropic and DeepSeek VL2 is made by DeepSeek. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude Sonnet 4 compare to DeepSeek VL2 in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4 scores MMMLU: 86.5%, TAU-bench Retail: 80.5%, GPQA: 75.4%, MMMU: 74.4%, SWE-Bench Verified: 72.7%. DeepSeek VL2 scores DocVQA: 93.3%, ChartQA: 86.0%, TextVQA: 84.2%, AI2D: 81.4%, OCRBench: 81.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 4 and DeepSeek VL2?

Claude Sonnet 4 supports 200K tokens and DeepSeek VL2 supports 129K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Sonnet 4 and DeepSeek VL2?

Key differences include context window (200K vs 129K), licensing (Proprietary vs deepseek). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 4 and DeepSeek VL2?

Claude Sonnet 4 is developed by Anthropic and DeepSeek VL2 is developed by DeepSeek.

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