Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Opus 4 vs DeepSeek V3 benchmark

Name: Claude Opus 4 vs DeepSeek V3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Opus 4 (Anthropic) and DeepSeek V3 (DeepSeek) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Opus 4 is ahead by 180 points (1,490 vs 1,310; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Opus 4 resolves 72.5% versus 48.6% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). DeepSeek V3 streams faster (66 tok/s) while DeepSeek V3 is the cheaper output token ($1.03/1M). Claude Opus 4 has the larger context window (200k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude Opus 4

First Claude 4 Opus generation. Baseline for opus 4 vs opus 5.

Elo 1,490$75/1M out

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3

Prior DeepSeek flagship. Baseline for v3 vs v4.

Elo 1,310$1.0287/1M out

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Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4 (6)vsDeepSeek V3 (4)

Claude Opus 4: 6W (60%)Overall: Claude Opus 4DeepSeek V3: 4W (40%)

← Claude Opus 4DeepSeek V3 →

Claude Opus 4 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,310

Coding Elo

1,502vs—

SWE-bench

72.5%vs48.6%

LiveBench

66.8%vs55.4%

GPQA Diamond

80.4%vs59.1%

Claude Opus 4: 5WDeepSeek V3: 0W

DeepSeek V3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

58 tok/svs66 tok/s

Time to first token

390 msvs380 ms

Claude Opus 4: 0WDeepSeek V3: 2W

DeepSeek V3 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$1.03/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$0.26/1M

Context window

200kvs164k

Claude Opus 4: 1WDeepSeek V3: 2W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageClaude Opus 4 4/6

Preference Elo

Claude Opus 4

180 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

DeepSeek V3

8 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek V3

$73.97/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+14%1,490

EloHigh is better

1,310

Code Elo

High is better

1,502

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

+21%66.8%

LiveBenchHigh is better

55.4%

SWE-bench

High is better

+49%72.5%

SWE-benchHigh is better

48.6%

GPQA

High is better

+36%80.4%

GPQAHigh is better

59.1%

TTFT

Low is better

390 ms

TTFTLow is better

380 ms+3%

Speed

High is better

58 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

66 tok/s+14%

In $

Low is better

$15/1M

In $Low is better

$0.26/1M+5728%

Out $

Low is better

$75/1M

Out $Low is better

$1.03/1M+7191%

Context

High is better

+22%200k

ContextHigh is better

164k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 99% with DeepSeek V3

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Opus 4$1,650.00 / mo

In: $525.00Out: $1125.00

DeepSeek V3$24.44 / mo

In: $9.01Out: $15.43

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek V3 is estimated to save $1,625.56/month ($19,507/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Opus 4:Pick Claude Opus 4 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
DeepSeek V3:Pick DeepSeek V3 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
DeepSeek V3:Pick DeepSeek V3 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4

Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V3

Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIDeepSeek V3

Lower TTFT (380 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4

Claude Opus 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4	Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V3	Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	DeepSeek V3	Lower TTFT (380 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4	Larger window (200k).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4	Claude Opus 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4

Elo 1,490

LiveBench66.8%

SWE-bench72.5%

Speed58 tok/s

Output cost$75/1M

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3

Elo 1,310

LiveBench55.4%

SWE-bench48.6%

Speed66 tok/s

Output cost$1.03/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4 or DeepSeek V3?: Claude Opus 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,490). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4 or DeepSeek V3?: Claude Opus 4 leads SWE-bench at 72.5% vs 48.6%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek V3 output tokens are $1.03/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4 or DeepSeek V3?: DeepSeek V3 has the lower time-to-first-token (380 ms vs 390 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Opus 4 accepts 200k tokens versus 164k.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek V3 is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Opus 4 and DeepSeek V3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Opus 4 matchups →|All DeepSeek V3 matchups →

Claude Opus 4 vs Claude 3 Opus (previous opus)Claude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.5 (next opus)DeepSeek V3 vs DeepSeek Coder V2 (previous deepseek)DeepSeek V3 vs DeepSeek R1 (next deepseek)DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Claude Opus 4 Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4

Claude Opus 4 vs DeepSeek V3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4 (6)vsDeepSeek V3 (4)

Claude Opus 4: 6W (60%)Overall: Claude Opus 4DeepSeek V3: 4W (40%)

← Claude Opus 4DeepSeek V3 →

Claude Opus 4 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,310

Coding Elo

1,502vs—

SWE-bench

72.5%vs48.6%

LiveBench

66.8%vs55.4%

GPQA Diamond

80.4%vs59.1%

Claude Opus 4: 5WDeepSeek V3: 0W

DeepSeek V3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

58 tok/svs66 tok/s

Time to first token

390 msvs380 ms

Claude Opus 4: 0WDeepSeek V3: 2W

DeepSeek V3 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$1.03/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$0.26/1M

Context window

200kvs164k

Claude Opus 4: 1WDeepSeek V3: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4

Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V3

Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIDeepSeek V3

Lower TTFT (380 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4

Claude Opus 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4	Higher SWE-bench (72.5%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V3	Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	DeepSeek V3	Lower TTFT (380 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4	Larger window (200k).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4	Claude Opus 4 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4 or DeepSeek V3?

Claude Opus 4 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,490). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4 or DeepSeek V3?

Claude Opus 4 leads SWE-bench at 72.5% vs 48.6%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek V3 output tokens are $1.03/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4 or DeepSeek V3?

DeepSeek V3 has the lower time-to-first-token (380 ms vs 390 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Opus 4 accepts 200k tokens versus 164k.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek V3 is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude Opus 4 and DeepSeek V3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.