Claude 3 Opus vs DeepSeek R1
Side-by-side benchmark comparison across coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing.
DeepSeek R1 by DeepSeek wins on 15 of 20 benchmarks against Claude 3 Opus by Anthropic, which leads on 5. This head-to-head comparison covers coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing metrics from our benchmark data.
Category-by-Category Breakdown
General Intelligence: In general intelligence, DeepSeek R1 scores 1355 on Chatbot Arena ELO compared to Claude 3 Opus's 1240, while DeepSeek R1 scores 84.0% on MMLU-Pro compared to Claude 3 Opus's 68.0%, while Claude 3 Opus scores 8.8 on MT-Bench compared to DeepSeek R1's 8.7, while DeepSeek R1 scores 87.8% on IFEval compared to Claude 3 Opus's 82.0%, while DeepSeek R1 scores 30.1% on SimpleQA compared to Claude 3 Opus's 29.0%, while Claude 3 Opus scores 81.0% on TruthfulQA compared to DeepSeek R1's 78.0%.
Coding: In coding, DeepSeek R1 scores 86.0% on HumanEval+ compared to Claude 3 Opus's 78.0%, while DeepSeek R1 scores 49.2% on SWE-bench Verified compared to Claude 3 Opus's 22.0%, while DeepSeek R1 scores 50.0% on LiveCodeBench compared to Claude 3 Opus's 32.0%.
Math: In math, DeepSeek R1 scores 97.3% on MATH compared to Claude 3 Opus's 68.0%, while DeepSeek R1 scores 97.0% on GSM8K compared to Claude 3 Opus's 88.0%.
Reasoning: In reasoning, DeepSeek R1 scores 71.5% on GPQA Diamond compared to Claude 3 Opus's 59.4%, while DeepSeek R1 scores 14.0% on ARC-AGI compared to Claude 3 Opus's 8.0%, while DeepSeek R1 scores 89.0% on BBH compared to Claude 3 Opus's 86.8%, while Claude 3 Opus scores 90.5% on Winogrande compared to DeepSeek R1's 88.0%.
Context: In context, Claude 3 Opus scores 200K on Context Length compared to DeepSeek R1's 64K.
Pricing Comparison
Claude 3 Opus costs $15.0/1M input tokens and $75.0/1M output tokens, while DeepSeek R1 costs $0.70/1M input and $2.5/1M output. DeepSeek R1 is the more affordable option for API usage.
Speed Comparison
Claude 3 Opus generates output at 25 tok/s compared to DeepSeek R1's 35 tok/s, and the time to first token is 800 ms for Claude 3 Opus versus 950 ms for DeepSeek R1. DeepSeek R1 delivers faster throughput.
Verdict
DeepSeek R1 leads across the board in coding, general intelligence, math, affordability, speed, making it the stronger overall choice in this comparison.
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Claude 3 Opus vs DeepSeek R1 — FAQ
Which is better, Claude 3 Opus or DeepSeek R1?
DeepSeek R1 wins on more benchmarks overall (15 vs 5). However, the best choice depends on your specific needs — each model excels in different areas.
How does Claude 3 Opus compare to DeepSeek R1 for coding?
DeepSeek R1 is better for coding, scoring 49.2% on SWE-bench Verified compared to 22.0%. SWE-bench tests real-world software engineering by resolving actual GitHub issues.
Is Claude 3 Opus cheaper than DeepSeek R1?
Yes, DeepSeek R1 is cheaper. Claude 3 Opus costs $15.0/1M input and $75.0/1M output tokens. DeepSeek R1 costs $0.70/1M input and $2.5/1M output tokens.
Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or DeepSeek R1?
DeepSeek R1 is faster, generating output at 35 tok/s compared to 25 tok/s. Faster output speed means shorter wait times for API responses.
What benchmarks does the Claude 3 Opus vs DeepSeek R1 comparison cover?
This comparison covers 20 benchmarks including Chatbot Arena ELO, MMLU-Pro, HumanEval+, MT-Bench, IFEval, SimpleQA, MATH, TruthfulQA, and more. Metrics span general intelligence, coding, math, reasoning, speed, and cost categories.