DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Claude Opus 5.5
Official DeepSeek and Anthropic API prices and LMArena scores, checked 2026-10-23. Add up to 2 more models to compare 4.
DeepSeek V4 Pro costs less; Claude Opus 5.5 wins more LMArena tasks.
DeepSeek V4 Pro is 3x cheaper on input and 5.1x cheaper on output. Claude Opus 5.5 scores 100 points higher for coding. Across 5 shared LMArena tasks, Claude Opus 5.5 leads 5 to 0. A medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) costs $46.20 on DeepSeek V4 Pro and $180 on Claude Opus 5.5.
- Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro if you want the lower bill ($46.20 vs $180 for a medium month) or you reuse long prompts (cached input $0.044 vs $0.20).
- Pick Claude Opus 5.5 if you care most about coding (+100), creative writing (+99) and chat (+83).
Medium: 20M input + 5M output tokens a month at list price (short-context rate, no caching or batch discounts).
Marked side is better: lower for prices, higher for context and scores. Bars are scaled to the larger of the two.
| Spec | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M tokens | ||
| Input | $1.32 | $4 |
| Cached input | $0.044 | $0.20 |
| Output | $3.96 | $20 |
| Blend 3:1 | $1.98 | $8 |
| Sample month, medium | $46.20 | $180 |
| Context | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Quality (LMArena, out of 100) | ||
| Coding | 0/100 #19 of 23 | 100/100 #1 of 23 |
| Chat | 0/100 #18 of 26 | 83/100 #2 of 26 |
| Creative writing | 1/100 #15 of 26 | 100/100 #1 of 26 |
| Roleplay and characters | 0/100 #14 of 26 | 41/100 #4 of 26 |
| Reasoning and math | 0/100 #21 of 26 | 67/100 #6 of 26 |
| Vision | Not ranked | 84/100 #3 of 22 |
| Long documents | Not ranked | Not ranked |
| Cheap bulk and agents | Not ranked | 100/100 #1 of 23 |
| Details | ||
| Provider | DeepSeek | Anthropic |
| API model id | deepseek-v4-pro | claude-opus-5.5 |
| Notes | Peak rate. Off-peak is half price. | 5-minute cache writes $5. |
| Sources | ||
| Last checked | 2026-10-23 | 2026-10-23 |
| Official pricing | DeepSeek pricing | Anthropic pricing |
Plans from data checked hourly against each vendor's official pricing page. Vendors state limits in different units, so we quote them as published. Team and enterprise plans are per seat.
API prices in USD per 1M tokens from each provider's official pricing page. Blend 3:1 = (3 x input + output) / 4. Sample month = stated input and output tokens at the list price, no caching. Quality: relative score out of 100 on each LMArena leaderboard (100 = top model we price on that board, n/a = not ranked there), data licensed CC BY 4.0. See how we pick.
Where each one ranks on LMArena
Relative score out of 100 on each leaderboard (100 = the top model we price there), with the rank among the models from our API price table that appear on that board.
- Coding (Code Arena): DeepSeek V4 Pro #19 of 23 (0/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #1 of 23 (100/100)
- Chat (Text Arena): DeepSeek V4 Pro #18 of 26 (0/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #2 of 26 (83/100)
- Creative writing (Text Arena creative writing): DeepSeek V4 Pro #15 of 26 (1/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #1 of 26 (100/100)
- Roleplay and characters (Text Arena multi-turn): DeepSeek V4 Pro #14 of 26 (0/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #4 of 26 (41/100)
- Reasoning and math (Text Arena math): DeepSeek V4 Pro #21 of 26 (0/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #6 of 26 (67/100)
- Vision (Vision Arena): DeepSeek V4 Pro not ranked, Claude Opus 5.5 #3 of 22 (84/100)
- Long documents (Document Arena): DeepSeek V4 Pro not ranked, Claude Opus 5.5 not ranked
- Cheap bulk and agents (Agent Arena): DeepSeek V4 Pro not ranked, Claude Opus 5.5 #1 of 23 (100/100)
Pricing details from the official pages
DeepSeek V4 Pro lists $1.32 input, $3.96 output, $0.044 cached input per 1M tokens on DeepSeek pricing. Claude Opus 5.5 lists $4 input, $20 output, $0.20 cached input per 1M tokens on Anthropic pricing. Prices checked 2026-10-23.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro: Peak rate. Off-peak is half price.
- Claude Opus 5.5: 5-minute cache writes $5.
Sample monthly bill at list price, no caching: Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $4.62 vs $18. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $46.20 vs $180. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $462 vs $1,800.
FAQ
Is DeepSeek V4 Pro cheaper than Claude Opus 5.5?
DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $1.32 input and $3.96 output per 1M tokens; Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 and $20. For a medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper: $46.20 vs $180.
Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Claude Opus 5.5?
On LMArena's Code Arena DeepSeek V4 Pro scores 0/100 (#19 of 23) and Claude Opus 5.5 100/100 (#1 of 23), so Claude Opus 5.5 is ahead by 100 points.
Which has the bigger context window?
DeepSeek V4 Pro: 1M tokens. Claude Opus 5.5: 1M tokens. Both list the same window.
How much do DeepSeek V4 Pro and Claude Opus 5.5 cost per month?
Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $4.62 vs $18. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $46.20 vs $180. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $462 vs $1,800. Pick your own token counts in the plan vs API calculator.
Where do these numbers come from?
Prices come from each provider's official pricing page, checked daily. Quality is the relative score on the LMArena leaderboard dataset, licensed CC BY 4.0. Where a model is not ranked we show n/a.
Sources
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