Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (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 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 22.8 points higher (57.6 vs 34.8) but costs 8.1× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $1081; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 34.8, and DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (Max) when 34.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 34.8 | −39.6% DeepSeek V4 Flash Vis… is 39.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $1,081.42 | −87.6% DeepSeek V4 Flash Vis… is 87.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 15.37s | −97.5% DeepSeek V4 Flash Vis… is 97.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.44 / $1.32 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (Max) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 39.6% less intelligence, 87.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 97.5% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/deepseek-v4-flash-vision · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/deepseek-v4-flash-vision?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill