Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) scores 25.0 points higher (49.7 vs 24.7) but costs 25× as much to run the benchmark ($5868 vs $239; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 24.7, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) when 24.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.7 | 24.7 | −50.3% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 50.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,867.76 | $238.91 | −95.9% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 95.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 40.34s | 2.88s | −92.9% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 92.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) vs Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh): 50.3% less intelligence, 95.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 92.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh)DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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