Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (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 23.2 points higher (53.6 vs 30.4) but costs 7.8× as much to run the benchmark ($2172 vs $277; 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 30.4, and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) when 30.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.6 | 30.4 | −43.3% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 43.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,172.43 | $277.30 | −87.2% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 87.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.81s | 48.87s | +44.5% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 44.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.43 / $0.87 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback): 43.3% less intelligence, 87.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.5% 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 Pro 0424 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
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-pro-0424 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5-high/deepseek-v4-pro-0424?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill