🧮 Mix cheap & premium AI

DeepSeek + Claude.
One API. One bill.

DeepSeek V3 costs $0.34 / 1M input tokens. Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3.60 / 1M. That's a 10× difference. Use DeepSeek for bulk, Claude for the 5% of requests that actually need reasoning depth — and save 60-85% without quality regression.

Both models in the same OpenAI-compatible API · Smart routing auto-tiers per task · 10 free trial calls

Try free — 10 callsCompare both no signup →

The math: when does mixing them save money?

Real production traffic for typical AI apps. Using smart routing reduces cost without quality loss.

StrategyCost / 1M requestsWhen this wins
Always Claude Sonnet 4$3,600When 100 % of requests need code/reasoning depth
Smart routing (60% DeepSeek + 40% Claude)$1,640Mixed-difficulty traffic (most apps)
Always DeepSeek V3$340Simple chat / classification only — quality may regress on hard tasks
Savings (smart vs always-Claude)$1,960 / 54 %For every 1M requests

Numbers assume avg 1K tokens in / 500 tokens out per request. Adjust for your traffic shape.

How smart routing decides

You tell it the goal. It picks the cheapest model that can deliver.

model="auto"

Balance cost and quality. Classifier tries DeepSeek first; falls back to Claude if task complexity warrants.

Saves ~60% vs always-Claude

model="auto-cheap"

Maximum savings. Stays on cheap tier (DeepSeek / Qwen / GLM-Flash) unless absolutely impossible.

Saves ~85% vs always-Claude

model="auto-code"

Routes coding tasks to Claude Sonnet 4 (SOTA for code), simple chat to DeepSeek.

Quality-preserving on code, cheap on chat

model="deepseek/deepseek-chat"

Direct call. Skips routing. Lowest latency, cheapest, you accept what DeepSeek delivers.

For known-simple tasks where you don't need adaptive routing

Three real patterns

1. Two-stage: classify cheap, answer premium

# Stage 1: classify with DeepSeek (~$0.0003)
intent = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek/deepseek-chat",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": f"Classify: {user_msg}"}],
).choices[0].message.content

# Stage 2: only escalate to Claude if intent requires reasoning
if intent in ("reasoning", "code"):
    answer = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="anthropic/claude-sonnet",  # ~$0.003 per request
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": user_msg}],
    )
else:
    answer = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="deepseek/deepseek-chat",  # 10x cheaper
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": user_msg}],
    )

2. Just use auto — let the router decide

# Smart routing built in — no two-stage code needed
answer = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="auto",  # picks DeepSeek or Claude per request
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": user_msg}],
)

3. Reliability fallback (when one provider is down)

try:
    answer = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="anthropic/claude-sonnet", messages=msgs
    )
except Exception:
    # Auto-fallback handled by gateway, but explicit also works
    answer = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="deepseek/deepseek-chat", messages=msgs
    )

Why one API beats two accounts

✅ AIPower (one API)

  • · One API key works for both DeepSeek and Claude
  • · One balance, one bill, one HK receipt
  • · Smart routing built in — no two-stage code
  • · Auto-failover if one provider rate-limits
  • · Pay with WeChat Pay, Alipay, or card
  • · Same OpenAI SDK — just change base_url

😬 Direct (two accounts)

  • · Two API keys, two SDKs, two ToS
  • · Two invoices to reconcile every month
  • · Build your own routing + fallback logic
  • · DeepSeek requires +86 phone if you're overseas
  • · Anthropic blocks China-issued cards
  • · No CNY billing, no fapiao

Try DeepSeek + Claude in 60 seconds

10 free trial calls cover both DeepSeek and Claude testing. No card.

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