Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) scores 2.8 points higher (42.3 vs 39.5) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($860 vs $672; both premium class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.3 | 39.5 | −6.6% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 6.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $860.33 | $671.96 | −21.9% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 21.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.42s | 14.92s | +11.2% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 11.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.29 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 6.6% less intelligence, 21.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 11.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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