Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning)

Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-31.

Trade-off
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Off the frontier
Intelligence
54.20
Total cost
$7981
DeepSeekDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning)Off the frontier
Intelligence
18.50
Total cost
$310
Verdict

Depends on your budget

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 35.7 points higher (54.2 vs 18.5) but costs 26× as much to run the benchmark ($7981 vs $310; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 18.5, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning) when 18.5 is enough.

MetricClaude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning)Difference
Intelligence (higher is better)54.218.5−65.9% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1… is 65.9% less intelligent
Total AA cost (lower is better)$7,980.63$310.24−96.1% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1… is 96.1% cheaper
End-to-end time (lower is better)486.65s4.11s−99.2% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1… is 99.2% faster
Price per 1M tokens (in / out)$2.00 / $10.0$0.30 / $1.20
Input modalitiesText, ImageText, Image

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 65.9% less intelligence, 96.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 99.2% faster end-to-end.

Open this matchup in the interactive pickerClaude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): what beats itDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning): what beats it
Today's Pareto frontier

Against the frontier

0204060$10$20$50$100$200$500$1k$2k$5k$10k$20kCost to run the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (USD, log scale)Intelligence IndexBeam 1.0 (Reflection): intelligence 17.70, $250Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 47.00, $6618Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 38.50, $3886Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 49.00, $13327Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 43.00, $4897Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 49.70, $10097Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) (Anthropic): intelligence 36.20, $339Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) (Anthropic): intelligence 34.30, $193Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 51.70, $2716Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 34.50, $980Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 58.40, $8910Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 48.10, $2031Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 41.10, $1268Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 25.30, $499Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 30.30, $679Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 49.60, $2903DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 23.10, $1402DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 32.50, $521Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (Google): intelligence 11.70, $654Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) (Google): intelligence 30.50, $5764Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) (Google): intelligence 30.00, $4547Gemini 4 Argon (High) (Google): intelligence 50.40, $6103GLM-5.3 (Low) (Z AI): intelligence 23.10, $1219GLM-5.3 (Max) (Z AI): intelligence 31.70, $3496GLM-5.3-Flash (Z AI): intelligence 27.80, $378GPT-6 Astra (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 43.00, $1651GPT-6 Astra (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 56.90, $5661GPT-6 Astra (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 51.50, $2638GPT-6 Luna (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 27.80, $136GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 9.40, $53.1GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 23.30, $85.7GPT-6.1 Sol (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 34.50, $238GPT-6.1 Terra (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 51.00, $972GPT-6.1 Terra (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 30.40, $213GPT-6.1 Terra (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 45.00, $400Grok 4.7 (High) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 35.00, $4722Grok 4.7 (Low) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 30.90, $2169Grok 4.7 (Xhigh) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 34.30, $5784Inkling (Xhigh) (Thinking Machines): intelligence 12.50, $1237Inkling Small (Thinking Machines): intelligence 12.90, $225Kimi K3 (Low) (Kimi): intelligence 17.40, $1764Kimi K3.1 Pro (Kimi): intelligence 46.00, $3153Ling 3.1 Flash 1019 (InclusionAI): intelligence 29.50, $2009MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Xiaomi): intelligence 29.90, $221MiniMax-M3 (MiniMax): intelligence 18.70, $878MiniMax-M3.1-Flash (MiniMax): intelligence 28.90, $358Mistral Large 4 (High) (Mistral): intelligence 26.00, $1359Mistral Large 4 (Medium) (Mistral): intelligence 23.10, $936Mistral Large 4 Preview (Mistral): intelligence 25.30, $2923Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) (Mistral): intelligence 4.30, $43.4Muse Glimmer (High) (Meta): intelligence 6.30, $182Muse Spark 1.3 (Max) (Meta): intelligence 36.40, $1906Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 24.70, $1697Muse Wonder (Max) (Meta): intelligence 43.30, $5414Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (Reasoning) (NVIDIA): intelligence 11.80, $1542Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (NVIDIA): intelligence 5.50, $227Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (NVIDIA): intelligence 13.60, $463Qwen3.8 27B (Low) (Alibaba): intelligence 15.70, $1460Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) (Alibaba): intelligence 17.50, $1636Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 10.00, $2642Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) (Alibaba): intelligence 20.10, $2390Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (Alibaba): intelligence 33.60, $6354Step 5 Preview (StepFun): intelligence 28.50, $1644GPT-6 Luna (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 9.70, $9.09GPT-6 Luna (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 18.30, $39.5Claude Haiku 5.5 (Low) (Anthropic): intelligence 18.60, $39.6GPT-6 Luna (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 21.40, $62.6Claude Haiku 5.5 (Medium) (Anthropic): intelligence 24.60, $72.7MiMo-V2.6-Flash (Xiaomi): intelligence 26.70, $106GPT-6.1 Terra (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 29.20, $111Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) (Anthropic): intelligence 29.60, $121GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 38.10, $190GPT-6.1 Terra (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 42.30, $267GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 46.10, $389GPT-6.1 Sol (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 50.20, $573GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 52.30, $718GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 54.50, $1124GPT-6 Astra (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 54.80, $3204GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 55.30, $3746Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 57.00, $4766Gemini 4 Carbon (High) (Google): intelligence 59.40, $8240DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning) (DeepSeek): intelligence 18.50, $310Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 54.20, $7981Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning)GPT-6 Luna (Low)Gemini 4 Carbon (High)
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup

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