Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking vs DeepSeek-R1

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across knowledge, coding, math, and reasoning.

Quick Verdict

DeepSeek-R1 wins overall with a score of 35 vs 29 (6 point difference).DeepSeek-R1 wins 4 out of 4 categories.

Knowledge

DeepSeek-R1

Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking

35.8

DeepSeek-R1

41.8

38
MMLU
44
37
GPQA
43
35
SuperGPQA
41
33
OpenBookQA
39

Coding

DeepSeek-R1

Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking

30

DeepSeek-R1

36

30
HumanEval
36

Mathematics

DeepSeek-R1

Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking

37

DeepSeek-R1

43

38
AIME 2023
44
40
AIME 2024
46
39
AIME 2025
45
34
HMMT Feb 2023
40
36
HMMT Feb 2024
42
35
HMMT Feb 2025
41
37
BRUMO 2025
43

Reasoning

DeepSeek-R1

Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking

35

DeepSeek-R1

41

36
SimpleQA
42
34
MuSR
40

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking or DeepSeek-R1?

DeepSeek-R1 scores higher overall with 35 vs 29, a difference of 6 points across all benchmarks.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking or DeepSeek-R1?

DeepSeek-R1 leads in knowledge tasks with an average score of 41.8 vs 35.8.

Which is better for coding, Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking or DeepSeek-R1?

DeepSeek-R1 leads in coding with an average score of 36 vs 30.

Which is better for math, Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking or DeepSeek-R1?

DeepSeek-R1 leads in math with an average score of 43 vs 37.

Which is better for reasoning, Claude 4.1 Opus Thinking or DeepSeek-R1?

DeepSeek-R1 leads in reasoning with an average score of 41 vs 35.