Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (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 (Xhigh) scores 15.4 points higher (49.7 vs 34.3) but costs 29× as much to run the benchmark ($5868 vs $200; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 34.3, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) when 34.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.7 | 34.3 | −31.0% DeepSeek V4 Flash 073… is 31.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,867.76 | $199.63 | −96.6% DeepSeek V4 Flash 073… is 96.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 35.31s | 18.12s | −48.7% DeepSeek V4 Flash 073… is 48.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.14 / $0.28 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh): 31.0% less intelligence, 96.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 48.7% 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 Flash 0731 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh)DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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