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Model comparison

Claude Opus 4.5 vs DeepSeek V3

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 17 shared benchmark results across 7 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

64.22/100
Margin
19.3pts
← winning
DeepSeek V3
DeepSeek
44.97/100
2 category wins2 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.5 #34 (Supported); DeepSeek V3 #147 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Opus 4.5 and DeepSeek V3 share 17 comparable benchmark results. 4 of 8 categories are comparable. 42 results are unique to Claude Opus 4.5; 5 to DeepSeek V3.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
17
Claude Opus 4.5 only
42
DeepSeek V3 only
5
Comparable categories
4 / 8

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. DeepSeek V3 only becomes the better choice if instruction following is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 17 shared benchmark results across 7 evidence categories; 4 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude Opus 4.5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 64.22 to 44.97. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Opus 4.5's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 57.5 against 1.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 80.9% to 42%. DeepSeek V3 does hit back in instruction following, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Claude Opus 4.5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $5.00 input / $25.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.27 input / $1.10 output per 1M tokens for DeepSeek V3. That is roughly 22.7x on output cost alone. Claude Opus 4.5 gives you the larger context window at 200K, compared with 128K for DeepSeek V3.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude Opus 4.5 and DeepSeek V3
CategoryClaude Opus 4.5ΔDeepSeek V3
MathClaude Opus 4.557.5Margin← 55.8DeepSeek V31.7
CodingClaude Opus 4.571.7Margin← 32.8DeepSeek V338.9
Inst. FollowingClaude Opus 4.569.5Margin→ 16.6DeepSeek V386.1
KnowledgeClaude Opus 4.558.1Margin→ 14.6DeepSeek V372.7
AgenticClaude Opus 4.562.6MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V3Not measured
ReasoningClaude Opus 4.564.4MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V3Not measured
MultilingualClaude Opus 4.585.7MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V3Not measured
MultimodalClaude Opus 4.569.9MarginNo overlapDeepSeek V3Not measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude Opus 4.5B · DeepSeek V3

  1. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 80.9%B 42%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 38.9
    SWE-bench Verified: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 80.9%; DeepSeek V3 scored 42%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  2. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 87%B 59.1%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 27.9
    GPQA: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 87%; DeepSeek V3 scored 59.1%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  3. FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 20.690%B 1.724%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 19
    FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3): Claude Opus 4.5 scored 20.690%; DeepSeek V3 scored 1.724%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  4. MMLU-Pro

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 89.5%B 75.9%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 13.6
    MMLU-Pro: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 89.5%; DeepSeek V3 scored 75.9%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

  5. IFEval

    Inst. Following
    Source ↗
    A 90.9%B 86.1%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 4.8
    IFEval: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 90.9%; DeepSeek V3 scored 86.1%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Opus 4.5$5 input / $25 outputDeepSeek V3$0.27 input / $1.1 outputDeepSeek V3 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Opus 4.546 tok/sDeepSeek V3Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Opus 4.51.01 sDeepSeek V3Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Opus 4.5200KDeepSeek V3128KClaude Opus 4.5 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 59.3%—Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 66.3%—Not comparable
OSWorldSource 66.3%—Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 59.6%—Not comparable
QwenClawBenchSource 52.3%—Not comparable
τ³-bench resultsSource 70.2%—Not comparable
VITA-BenchSource 23.3%—Not comparable
DeepPlanningSource 26.4%—Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 43.5%—Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 42.3%—Not comparable
MCP-TasksSource 71.8%—Not comparable
WideResearchSource 76.4%—Not comparable
CyberGymSource 50.6%—Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 86.3%22.8%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Gert LabsSource 64.23%—Not comparable
JobBenchSource 32.3%—Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource —1.6%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource —0.0%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource —217Not comparable
CodingClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 80.9%42%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
LiveCodeBench v6Source 84.8%—Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 57.1%—Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 77.5%—Not comparable
NL2RepoSource 43.2%—Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 47.0%35.4%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
LiveCodeBenchSource —37.6%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource —23.0%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
LongBench v2Source 64.4%—Not comparable
AI-NeedleSource 74%—Not comparable
AA-LCRSource 65.3%29.0%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
CritPtSource 0.3%0.0%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
KnowledgeDeepSeek V3 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
GPQASource 87%59.1%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
SuperGPQASource 70.6%—Not comparable
MMLU-ProSource 89.5%75.9%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
MMLU-ReduxSource 96.6%—Not comparable
C-EvalSource 92.2%—Not comparable
HLESource 30.8%—Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 34.7%14.2%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 81.0%55.7%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-HLESource 12.9%3.6%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -3.9%-41.3%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 40.7%25.4%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 75.4%89.4%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA MMLU-ProSource 88.9%—Not comparable
MathClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
AIME26Source 95.1%—Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2025Source 92.9%—Not comparable
HMMT Nov 2025Source 93.3%—Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 85.3%—Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 84.0%—Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 20.690%1.724%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 4.167%—Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
MMLU-ProXSource 85.7%—Not comparable
NOVA-63Source 56.7%—Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
MMMU-ProSource 70.6%—Not comparable
MathVisionSource 74.3%—Not comparable
CharXivSource 68.5%—Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource 84.4%—Not comparable
ScreenSpot ProSource 45.7%—Not comparable
V*Source 67.0%—Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 71.2%—Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 12771150Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Inst. FollowingDeepSeek V3 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5DeepSeek V3Result
IFEvalSource 90.9%86.1%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
IFBenchSource 58%—Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource 43.0%34.8%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Frequently Asked Questions (5)

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.5 or DeepSeek V3?

Claude Opus 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 64.22 to 44.97. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 80.9% and 42%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Opus 4.5 or DeepSeek V3?

DeepSeek V3 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 72.7 versus 58.1. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.5 or DeepSeek V3?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 71.7 versus 38.9. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Claude Opus 4.5 or DeepSeek V3?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 57.5 versus 1.7. Inside this category, FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Claude Opus 4.5 or DeepSeek V3?

DeepSeek V3 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 86.1 versus 69.5. Inside this category, AA-IFBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

Claude Opus 4.5
API / mo$22,500
Self-host / moNot listed
Break-even—
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
DeepSeek V3
API / mo$1,028
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even1.2B/day
Model the full break-even

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