DeepSeek V4-Pro vs Claude Opus 4.8 — can a cheap open model really replace the frontier king. Below is the full side-by-side: specifications, API pricing, context window, local hardware requirements, and a clear, data-driven recommendation on which to pick.
| Spec | DeepSeek V4-Pro | Claude Opus 4.8 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | DeepSeek | Anthropic |
| Type | LLM (MoE) | LLM (reasoning) |
| Parameters | 1.6T total / ~49B active (MoE) | Undisclosed |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Modality | Text → Text | Text, Vision → Text |
| License | MIT (open) | Proprietary |
| Open weights | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Input price ($/1M) | $0.435 | $5.00 |
| Output price ($/1M) | $0.87 | $25.00 |
| VRAM (4-bit) | ~800 GB | — |
| Min GPU (local) | Multi-GPU server (e.g. 8× H100 80GB) | — |
| Released | 2026-04 | 2026 |
Key differences
- Cost: DeepSeek V4-Pro is 1739% cheaper than Claude Opus 4.8 on a blended-token basis.
- Openness: DeepSeek V4-Pro is open-weight (self-hostable, private, fine-tunable); Claude Opus 4.8 is proprietary (API-only, but fully managed).
- Run DeepSeek V4-Pro locally: ~~800 GB at 4-bit (min Multi-GPU server (e.g. 8× H100 80GB)).
Which should you choose?
Choose DeepSeek V4-Pro if you want the lower per-token cost for high-volume workloads, or you want to self-host, fine-tune, or keep data fully private.
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if you prefer a fully managed API with no infrastructure to run.
→ Estimate real costs in the API cost calculator · check local hardware in the VRAM calculator · browse all 30+ models.
All specs and prices are pulled live from our AI models database and kept current. Compare either model against others, or estimate your own monthly spend with the free calculators above.