LLM Reference

Claude Opus 4.6 vs DeepSeek V3.1

Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and DeepSeek V3.1 (2025) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and DeepSeek. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window, while DeepSeek V3.1 ships a 64k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Claude Opus 4.6 leads by 5.8 pts. On pricing, DeepSeek V3.1 costs $0.27/1M input tokens versus $5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

DeepSeek V3.1 is ~1752% cheaper at $0.27/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.6 only for coding workflow support.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalClaude Opus 4.6DeepSeek V3.1
Best forreasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agentsmultimodal apps and provider-routed production
Decision fitCoding, RAG, and AgentsCoding, Agents, and Vision
Context window1m64k
Cheapest output$25/1M tokens$1/1M tokens
Provider routes6 tracked8 tracked
Shared benchmarksMMLU PRO leader2 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Claude Opus 4.6 when...
  • Claude Opus 4.6 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 5.8 points.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 uniquely exposes Reasoning and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Choose DeepSeek V3.1 when...
  • DeepSeek V3.1 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $1/1M tokens.
  • DeepSeek V3.1 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Local decision data tags DeepSeek V3.1 for Coding, Agents, and Vision.

Monthly cost at traffic

Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.

Lower estimate DeepSeek V3.1

Claude Opus 4.6

$10,250

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic

DeepSeek V3.1

$466

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Novita AI

Estimated monthly gap: $9,784. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Claude Opus 4.6 -> DeepSeek V3.1
  • Provider overlap exists on Microsoft Foundry, AWS Bedrock, and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • DeepSeek V3.1 is $24/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Reasoning and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
DeepSeek V3.1 -> Claude Opus 4.6
  • Provider overlap exists on AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 is $24/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
  • Claude Opus 4.6 adds Reasoning and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2026-02-052025-08-21
Context window1m64k
Parameters—671B total, 37B active (MoE)
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyMixture of Experts
LicenseProprietaryMITOSI-approved
OpennessProprietaryOpen source
WeightsNot releasedUnknown
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: permitted
Knowledge cutoff2025-12-

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeClaude Opus 4.6DeepSeek V3.1
Input price$5/1M tokens$0.27/1M tokens
Output price$25/1M tokens$1/1M tokens
Providers
AnthropicAWS BedrockGCP Vertex AIMicrosoft FoundryOpenRouterVercel AI Gateway
Microsoft FoundryFireworks AINVIDIA NIMTogether AIAWS BedrockReplicate API

Capabilities

CapabilityClaude Opus 4.6DeepSeek V3.1
VisionYesYes
MultimodalYesYes
ReasoningYesNo
JSON / Tool useYesNo
Structured outputsYesYes
Code executionYesYes
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

Benchmarks

BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.6DeepSeek V3.1
MMLU PRO89.183.3
SWE-bench Verified80.866.0

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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.