Claude 3 Haiku vs DeepSeek Chat V3

Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026

Claude 3 Haiku

Anthropic

Cheapest Claude model. Fast responses for simple tasks and basic coding.

Input$0.250/M
Output$1.25/M
Context200K tokens
Best ForSimple queries, fast responses, cost-sensitive tasks
Benchmark45/100

DeepSeek Chat V3

DeepSeek

Very affordable general-purpose model from DeepSeek. Strong coding and reasoning at low cost.

Input$0.270/M
Output$1.10/M
Context128K tokens
Best ForCost-sensitive projects, coding, general tasks
Benchmark62/100

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Third-party benchmark scores — higher is better. Data sourced from SWE-bench, LiveCodeBench, HumanEval, and BigCodeBench.

BenchmarkClaude 3 HaikuDeepSeek Chat V3Leader
Overall Score 45 62 DeepSeek Chat (V3) leads by 17pts
SWE-bench Verified 38 56 DeepSeek Chat (V3) leads by 18pts
LiveCodeBench 46 64 DeepSeek Chat (V3) leads by 18pts
HumanEval 68 84 DeepSeek Chat (V3) leads by 16pts
BigCodeBench 30 46 DeepSeek Chat (V3) leads by 16pts

Cost Comparison by Scenario

Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.

ScenarioClaude 3 HaikuDeepSeek Chat V3Savings
Small Script (1K lines) $0.05 $0.04 DeepSeek Chat V3 saves <$0.01 (8%)
Medium Feature (10K lines) $0.34 $0.31 DeepSeek Chat V3 saves $0.02 (7%)
Large Project (50K lines) $1.69 $1.57 DeepSeek Chat V3 saves $0.11 (7%)
Code Review (5K lines) $0.07 $0.07 DeepSeek Chat V3 saves <$0.01 (0%)

Value Analysis (Price per Benchmark Score Point)

Lower is better — how much you pay for each point of benchmark performance.

ModelOverall ScorePrice per Score PointVerdict
Claude 3 Haiku 45 $0.006/pt Higher cost per point
DeepSeek Chat V3 62 $0.004/pt Better value

DeepSeek Chat V3 delivers the best value at $0.004 per score point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Claude 3 Haiku

  • + Very cheap
  • + Fast
  • - Basic capability only

DeepSeek Chat V3

  • + Excellent value
  • + Strong coding focus
  • - Less general-purpose

Verdict

Claude 3 Haiku is cheaper at $0.250/M, but DeepSeek Chat V3 scores higher on benchmarks (62 vs 45).

Choose Claude 3 Haiku for cost-sensitive projects, DeepSeek Chat V3 when performance matters most.

Compare with Other Models