Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 vs DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 is the pick when cost matters at scale, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 when you need seed (reproducible sampling).

Key numbers

SpecAnthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
ProviderAnthropicDeepSeek
Input price (per 1M tokens)$0.10$0.15
Output price (per 1M tokens)$0.50$0.60
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$0.20$0.26
Cheaper than … of all models we track69%64%
Context window1M tokens (~1,500 pages)1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages)
Larger context than … of all models69%80%
Max output per response128K tokens (~96,000 words)393K tokens (~294,900 words)
Input typestext, image, filetext, image
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2026-10-072026-10-17
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Difference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$17.50$23.25Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 saves $5.75
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$17.00$24.00Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 saves $7.00
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$18.00$25.20Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 saves $7.20
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$11.00$15.60Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 saves $4.60
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$5.50$8.10Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 saves $2.60

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityAnthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017What it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes✓ Yescall your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)✓ Yes✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode✓ Yes✓ Yesspend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes✓ Yesread screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input✓ Yes—accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search✓ Yes—answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)—✓ Yesrepeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities—✓ Yesread token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

Which should you choose?

Choose Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 24% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($17.50 vs $23.25 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 does not advertise it
  • you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 does not advertise it

Choose DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 if…

  • you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 does not advertise it
  • you need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 does not advertise it
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 393K tokens (about 294,900 words) per response

Frequently asked questions

Is Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 better than DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017?

Neither wins outright: Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 is the pick when cost matters at scale, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 when you need seed (reproducible sampling). In short: Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 when cost matters at scale, you need file / PDF input, you need built-in web search; DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 when you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities, you generate long outputs in one go.

Which is cheaper, Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 or DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017?

Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper: $0.20 vs $0.26 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 24% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $17.50 against $23.25.

How much do Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 and DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 cost per million tokens?

Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.50 per 1M output tokens; DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs $0.15 input and $0.60 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 or DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017?

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5.

Do Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 and DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5: yes, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5: yes, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: yes.

Can Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 or DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 read images?

Yes, both accept image input.

Is Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 or DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 free to use?

No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.

What is the maximum output length of Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 and DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017?

Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 can write up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words) per response; DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 up to 393K (about 294,900 words).

When were Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 and DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 released?

Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 was listed on 2026-10-07; DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 on 2026-10-17.

About the two models

Compare Anthropic: Claude Haiku 5.5 with other models

Compare DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 with other models

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