Claude Opus 5 (Max) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Max) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) 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 (Max) scores 26.4 points higher (50.8 vs 24.4) but costs 60× as much to run the benchmark ($7275 vs $121; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 24.4, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) when 24.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Max) | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 50.8 | 24.4 | −52.0% DeepSeek V4 Flash 042… is 52.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,274.74 | $121.20 | −98.3% DeepSeek V4 Flash 042… is 98.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 63.34s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.11 / $0.23 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) vs Claude Opus 5 (Max): 52.0% less intelligence, 98.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Max) 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 0420 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
Claude Opus 5 (Max)DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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