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DeepSeek vs Claude: Is free DeepSeek good enough, or should you pay for Claude?

Facts checked Oct 22, 2026. Every number links to its source.

Summary

Derived from sourced facts, not from builder opinions
  • The DeepSeek app is free, with no paid plan. Claude has a free plan, and Pro costs $20 a month.
  • As models run through the API by Vals AI, Claude Opus 5.5 (Claude Pro and up) scored 65.15% on Terminal-Bench 4.0. DeepSeek V4.1-Flash-1017, the model in the DeepSeek app, scored 31.82%.
  • On the Vals Index of work tasks, Claude Sonnet 5.5, on every Claude plan, scored 70.85% (69.03% when tasks answered by a fallback model count as failures) and DeepSeek V4.1-Flash-1017 61.26%.
  • DeepSeek collects, processes and stores personal data in the People's Republic of China.

Choose DeepSeek if

  • You want a capable model at no cost, with no plan to buy.
  • You want a model whose weights are public, so you can also run it yourself.
  • You mostly chat and do not need a coding agent.

Choose Claude if

  • You want Opus 5.5 or Sonnet 5.5, which scored much higher than DeepSeek's app model on coding and work tests.
  • You plan to use Claude Code.
  • You do not want your chats stored in China.
DeepSeek
Claude

Follow both to get an email when either one changes its price, limits or behavior.

Plans

DeepSeek plans

Free
Free

The full app and website at no cost

Claude plans

Free
Free

Sonnet and Haiku · web search, memory, connectors, Artifacts

Pro
$20/month

Claude Code and Opus included · $17/month billed annually

Max
$100/month

From $100: 5x or 20x Pro usage

Team Standard seat
$25/month

Per seat, monthly · $20 billed annually

Enterprise
$20/month

Per seat billed annually, 20-seat minimum, plus usage at API rates

Subscription agents are priced per seat with usage limits, so this compares plans rather than dividing a subscription by a guessed number of tasks.

Side by side

DeepSeekClaude
PriceFree, with no paid plan
Not published
Model in the appDeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 since 2026-10-17 · V4 Pro through Expert Mode
Not published
Expert ModeDeepSeek-V4-Pro, in the app and on the web since 2026-08-13
Not published
Context window1M tokens across DeepSeek's official services
Up to 1M tokens on every plan, depending on the model
Open weightsThe app's model, V4.1-Flash-1017, is published on Hugging Face and ModelScope
Not published
Where data is storedPersonal data is collected, processed and stored in the People's Republic of China
Not published
MakerNot publishedAnthropic
PlansNot publishedFree $0 · Pro $20/month ($17 billed annually) · Max from $100 (5x or 20x Pro usage) · Team Standard $25/seat monthly ($20 annual), Premium $125 ($100 annual) · Enterprise $20/seat plus usage at API rates
Usage limitsNot publishedRolling 5-hour windows on every plan, plus weekly limits on paid plans · Pro gives at least 5x Free usage per 5 hours, Max 5x or 20x Pro · no fixed message counts · paid plans can buy usage credits at API rates
Models in the appNot publishedCurrent models are Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5 and Fable 5.1 · Free gets Sonnet and Haiku · Opus from Pro · Fable with usage credits on Pro and up to 50% of weekly limits on Max
Key featuresNot publishedFree: web search, file creation and code execution, memory, connectors, Artifacts, Claude Design, Slides and Docs · Pro adds Claude Code, Research, unlimited Projects, Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365
Coding agentNot publishedClaude Code is included in every paid plan and shares the plan's usage limits
Model trainingNot publishedOpt-out on Free, Pro and Max · off by default on Team and Enterprise

Scores appear side by side only when both were published for the same test. Settings differ between sources, so small gaps can reverse under another harness.

Updates

DeepSeek

Claude

27 recorded incidents in the last 90 days.

Limits change

Accounts that keep trying to extract Claude's reasoning face stricter usage limits

Anthropic said users who repeatedly try to extract Claude's reasoning now get stricter usage limits, and accounts with persistent distillation attempts are banned. The same post restates that blocked pre-output requests have been billed again since September 24.

Who is affected:
Accounts whose prompts repeatedly try to get Claude to reveal its full reasoning.
What to do:
No action needed for normal use. Do not build workflows that try to extract hidden reasoning.

FAQ

Is DeepSeek better than Claude?

No published test compares the two apps. As models, Claude Opus 5.5 scored 65.15% on Vals AI's Terminal-Bench 4.0 and DeepSeek V4.1-Flash-1017 31.82%. DeepSeek's advantage is that the whole app is free, with no paid tier.

Is DeepSeek free?

Yes. The DeepSeek app and website are free, with no paid plan.

Can I use DeepSeek models in Claude Code?

Yes, through DeepSeek's API, which supports Anthropic's API format. DeepSeek lists Claude Code among the agents its V4 models work with. That usage is billed by DeepSeek, not by a Claude plan.

Where does DeepSeek store my data?

DeepSeek's privacy policy says it collects, processes and stores personal data in the People's Republic of China.

Is DeepSeek open source?

Its app model, V4.1-Flash-1017, is published as open weights on Hugging Face and ModelScope. Claude models are not.

How big is DeepSeek's context window?

1M tokens across DeepSeek's official services.

Does Claude train on my chats?

Only if you allow it on Free, Pro and Max, where you can opt out. It is off by default on Team and Enterprise.

Related comparisons

Claude vs ChatGPTClaude vs Gemini appClaude vs GrokChatGPT vs DeepSeekClaude vs PerplexityDeepSeek pageClaude page

Sources and method

Prices, specs and limits come from each maker's own pages. Benchmark scores come from independent benchmark publishers and the makers' announcements, with the setting each was measured in. Changes come from changelogs, deprecation pages and status pages. The summary is written from these facts only.