Simulating realistic Agentic workflow parameters (40,000 in / 1,500 out with 65% cache reuse). DeepSeek Coder V2.5 delivers a 96% cost reduction over Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
| Traffic Volume Tier | Claude 3.5 Sonnet Monthly | DeepSeek Coder V2.5 Monthly | Monthly Savings by picking DeepSeek Coder V2.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 reqs/mo (Dev/Testing) | $72.30 | $2.744 | Save $69.556 / mo |
| 10,000 reqs/mo (Small App) | $723.00 | $27.44 | Save $695.56 / mo |
| 100,000 reqs/mo (Growth Production) | $7,230.00 | $274.40 | Save $6,955.60 / mo |
| 1,000,000 reqs/mo (Scale SaaS) | $72,300.00 | $2,744.00 | Save $69,556.00 / mo |
DeepSeek Coder V2.5 is 96% cheaper for Agentic workflow workloads. At standard Agentic workflow parameter ratios (40,000 input tokens, 1,500 output tokens, 65% cache hit), DeepSeek Coder V2.5 costs $0.002744 per request compared to $0.0723 on Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet offers a context window of 200,000 tokens (max output: 8,192), while DeepSeek Coder V2.5 offers 128,000 tokens (max output: 8,192).
At 100,000 requests per month, using DeepSeek Coder V2.5 saves $6,955.60 every month (or $83,467.20 annually) compared to Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Prompt caching is the single biggest lever — each step re-reads prior context. Summarize or prune tool outputs before appending them to the transcript. Cap the step budget; runaway loops are the #1 surprise on agent invoices.