Choosing between Claude Opus 4.8 (Anthropic) and DeepSeek-V4-Pro (DeepSeek)? This is a side-by-side of their API pricing, context windows, and real cost on a sample workload — so you can pick on the numbers, not the marketing.
Claude Opus 4.8 vs DeepSeek-V4-Pro: pricing & specs
| Claude Opus 4.8 | DeepSeek-V4-Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Anthropic | DeepSeek |
| Input / 1M tokens | $5.00 | $0.435 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $25.00 | $0.87 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.50 | $0.0036 |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 128K tokens |
DeepSeek-V4-Pro: Standard cache-miss input pricing; off-peak discounts may apply.
Cost example: 1M input + 1M output tokens
For a workload of 1M input plus 1M output tokens, Claude Opus 4.8 costs $30.00 and DeepSeek-V4-Pro costs $1.305 — DeepSeek-V4-Pro is about 96% cheaper on this mix. Your real ratio of input to output tokens shifts the math; plug in your own numbers with the token cost calculator.
Which should you choose?
- Lower cost: DeepSeek-V4-Pro is cheaper on output tokens ($0.87 vs $25.00 / 1M), which usually dominates spend on generation-heavy workloads.
- Larger context window: Claude Opus 4.8 fits more in one prompt (200K tokens) — better for long documents or big RAG context.
- Ecosystem: pick the provider whose SDK, rate limits, and tooling fit your stack — see Anthropic rate limits and DeepSeek rate limits.
Full specs: Claude Opus 4.8 · DeepSeek-V4-Pro. Thinking of switching providers? See the migration guides.
Prices as of June 2026 and change often — verify before relying on them.