ran both models on the same set of 50 coding tasks over a week. figured I'd share since everyone always asks which model to use for what.
task types: file reads, simple refactors, grep-and-replace, test generation, docstring writing, basic debugging
results: - quality: deepseek-v3 matched sonnet on about 80% of tasks. the 20% where sonnet was clearly better were all multi-file architecture decisions and complex refactors - speed: deepseek was faster on average (less queue time) - cost: roughly 1/8th of sonnet per token
my takeaway: for routine dev tasks, deepseek-v3 is genuinely good enough. I only switch to claude for serious multi-step reasoning. been routing this way for a few weeks and honestly don't miss using sonnet for everything.
caveat — coding tasks only. creative writing, analysis etc might differ. and deepseek occasionally hallucinates imports that don't exist which is annoying.
anyone else have head-to-head data? would love to compare.
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