Claude Opus 5 (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Medium) 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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (Medium) scores 14.4 points higher (44.8 vs 30.4) but costs 9.9× as much to run the benchmark ($2732 vs $277; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 30.4, and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) when 30.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Medium) | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.8 | 30.4 | −32.1% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 32.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,731.91 | $277.30 | −89.8% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 89.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.85s | 47.98s | +273.4% DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 … is 273.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.43 / $0.87 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5 (Medium): 32.1% less intelligence, 89.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 273.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Claude Opus 5 (Medium)DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-medium/deepseek-v4-pro-0424 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-medium/deepseek-v4-pro-0424?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill