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Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash Base

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 2 shared benchmark results across 1 category. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

65.07/100
No comparison
N/A
1 category wins0 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 4.6 #32 (Supported); DeepSeek V4 Flash Base unranked (Not scored). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 4.6 and DeepSeek V4 Flash Base share 2 comparable benchmark results. 1 of 8 categories are comparable. 31 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 4.6; 22 to DeepSeek V4 Flash Base.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
2
Claude Sonnet 4.6 only
31
DeepSeek V4 Flash Base only
22
Comparable categories
1 / 8

Treat this as a split decision. Claude Sonnet 4.6 makes more sense if knowledge is the priority; DeepSeek V4 Flash Base is the better fit if you need the larger 1M context window.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 2 shared benchmark results across 1 evidence category; 1 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude Sonnet 4.6 and DeepSeek V4 Flash Base finish on the same BenchAlign overall score, so this is less about a single winner and more about where the edge shows up. The BenchAlign headline says tie; the benchmark table is where the real choice happens.

DeepSeek V4 Flash Base gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for Claude Sonnet 4.6.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and DeepSeek V4 Flash Base
CategoryClaude Sonnet 4.6ΔDeepSeek V4 Flash Base
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 4.666.0Margin← 9.6DeepSeek V4 Flash Base56.4
AgenticClaude Sonnet 4.665.2MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V4 Flash BaseNot measured
CodingClaude Sonnet 4.669.1MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V4 Flash BaseNot measured
ReasoningClaude Sonnet 4.6Not measuredMarginNo overlapDeepSeek V4 Flash Base44.7
MathClaude Sonnet 4.626.4MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V4 Flash BaseNot measured
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 4.677.4MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V4 Flash BaseNot measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude Sonnet 4.6B · DeepSeek V4 Flash Base

  1. SuperGPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 95%B 46.5%
    Winner: Claude Sonnet 4.6Δ 48.5
    SuperGPQA: Claude Sonnet 4.6 scored 95%; DeepSeek V4 Flash Base scored 46.5%. Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins this benchmark.

  2. MMLU-Pro

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 79.2%B 68.3%
    Winner: Claude Sonnet 4.6Δ 10.9
    MMLU-Pro: Claude Sonnet 4.6 scored 79.2%; DeepSeek V4 Flash Base scored 68.3%. Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Sonnet 4.6$3 input / $15 outputDeepSeek V4 Flash BaseNot availableA complete price comparison is not available.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Sonnet 4.644 tok/sDeepSeek V4 Flash BaseNot availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Sonnet 4.61.48 sDeepSeek V4 Flash BaseNot availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Sonnet 4.6200KDeepSeek V4 Flash Base1MDeepSeek V4 Flash Base lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 59.1%—Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 72.1%—Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 67.8%—Not comparable
CyberGymSource 65.2%—Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 79.5%—Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 62.92%—Not comparable
OSWorld 2.0Source 8.3%—Not comparable
JobBenchSource 36.9%—Not comparable
Coding
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 79.6%—Not comparable
SWE-RebenchSource 60.7%—Not comparable
React Native EvalsSource 80.6%—Not comparable
Vibe Code BenchSource 51.48%—Not comparable
cursorBench31Source 48.8%—Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 46.9%—Not comparable
FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource 24.3%—Not comparable
BigCodeBenchSource —56.8%Not comparable
HumanEvalSource —69.5%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
AA-LCRSource 57.7%—Not comparable
CritPtSource 0.9%—Not comparable
BBHSource —86.9%Not comparable
DROPSource —88.6%Not comparable
HellaSwagSource —85.7%Not comparable
WinoGrandeSource —79.5%Not comparable
CLUEWSCSource —82.2%Not comparable
LongBench v2Source —44.7%Not comparable
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 4.6 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
GPQASource 89.9%—Not comparable
SuperGPQASource 95%46.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads
MMLU-ProSource 79.2%68.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads
HLESource 49%—Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 35.9%—Not comparable
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 79.9%—Not comparable
AA-HLESource 13.2%—Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -2.9%—Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 38.0%—Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 65.9%—Not comparable
AGIEvalSource —82.6%Not comparable
MMLUSource —88.7%Not comparable
MMLU-ReduxSource —89.4%Not comparable
MMMLUSource —88.8%Not comparable
C-EvalSource —92.1%Not comparable
CMMLUSource —90.4%Not comparable
MultiLoKoSource —42.2%Not comparable
SimpleQASource —30.1%Not comparable
FACTS ParametricSource —33.9%Not comparable
TriviaQASource —82.8%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 32.400%—Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 8.300%—Not comparable
GSM8KSource —90.8%Not comparable
MATHSource —57.4%Not comparable
CMathSource —93.6%Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
MGSMSource —85.7%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
CharXivSource 77.4%—Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 70.6%—Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1314—Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6DeepSeek V4 Flash BaseResult
AA-IFBenchSource 41.2%—Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or DeepSeek V4 Flash Base?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 and DeepSeek V4 Flash Base are tied on the BenchAlign overall score, so the right pick depends on which category matters most for your use case.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or DeepSeek V4 Flash Base?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 66 versus 56.4. Inside this category, SuperGPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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