Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 29.4 points higher (53.6 vs 24.2) but costs 15× as much to run the benchmark ($2172 vs $149; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 24.2, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when 24.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.6 | 24.2 | −54.9% DeepSeek V4 Flash 042… is 54.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,172.43 | $149.48 | −93.1% DeepSeek V4 Flash 042… is 93.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.81s | 116.79s | +245.4% DeepSeek V4 Flash 042… is 245.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.11 / $0.23 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 54.9% less intelligence, 93.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 245.4% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/deepseek-v4-flash-0420 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/deepseek-v4-flash-0420?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill