Model Comparison
Claude Opus 4.8 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
Too close to call: the best configurations, Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max), are 63 Elo apart, and their 95% ranges overlap. Among 78 models, each ranked by its best configuration, Claude Opus 4.8 is #15 and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 is #21. Cost per script: $1.23 for Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) and $0.077 for DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max).
Last updated , from board data generated at 01:13 UTC.
Picks and Verdict
Ranks in the picks and verdict are configuration ranks: each setting's place among all 127 configurations. The cards above give each model's rank.
PickClaude Opus 4.8
Claude Opus 4.8 (high)
Pick Claude Opus 4.8 (high) when you need the draft now, since it comes back in 1.4 minutes for $0.193, about six times faster than DeepSeek's best.
PickDeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max)
Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max) for most scripts, since the board can't separate it from Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) and it costs $0.077 instead of $1.23.
The board can't separate DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max) from Claude Opus 4.8's best setting. Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) sits 63 Elo above it, the #15 model of 78 against the #21 model, and their 95% ranges overlap. So I'd let the bill and the clock decide. Max effort costs $1.23 a script, about 16 times DeepSeek's $0.077, and takes about a minute longer. That money buys structure and cues: 1.5 points on YouTube Best Practices and 2.1 on Visual Cue Quality. Substance is nearly level, DeepSeek's hooks score slightly higher, and its drafts are steadier. Opus at high makes a different offer. It costs $0.193 and comes back in under a minute and a half, about six times faster than DeepSeek at max. You do give up Elo for that speed: Claude Opus 4.8 (high) sits 82 Elo below DeepSeek's best, with ranges a single Elo point apart, strong evidence for that order with nothing to spare. DeepSeek's own high setting isn't an option, down at configuration #81 of 127. For most scripts I'd run DeepSeek at max, and Opus at high when I can't wait.
Disclosure: Claude Opus 4.8 comes from the same lab as one of the four judges, Claude Opus 5.5. The other three sit outside its lab, so it is never scored by its own lab alone (how the panel works). The judge analysis measures how much each judge favors its own lab.
How to Read the Writing Score, Writing Elo and 95% Ranges
Writing Score and Writing Elo. The Writing Score (0 to 100) is the weighted average of the nine metric scores: seven from the judges, Length Adherence from code and the Slop Score half from each. The Writing Elo is a rating from pairwise comparisons: on each script, each configuration's average across its drafts is compared with every other configuration's, and gaps within the draft-to-draft variation count as draws. Elo rewards winning often, so the two can put configurations in a different order.
Elo ranges. Each 95% range shows how far a configuration's Elo could move if the drafts had come out slightly differently. It comes from resampling every configuration's recorded draft scores on each reference script and ranking again. Comparing two separate ranges does not test the Elo gap between them: ranges far apart are strong evidence for the order, and overlapping ranges do not mean a tie. The reference scripts stay fixed, so the ranges say nothing about new scripts. The methodology page has the full description.
All Thinking Levels of Both Models
Every ranked configuration of Claude Opus 4.8 and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813, scored on the same 10 scripts by the same four judges.
- Each row is one configuration: the model at one thinking level. The dot is its Writing Elo, a rating from pairwise comparisons of the scores on each script, and the bar is its 95% range: how far that Elo could move if the drafts had come out slightly differently.
- When two bars overlap, the board cannot order those two configurations. Bars far apart are strong evidence for the order.
- The table under the chart lists the same configurations in the same order and adds the Writing Score (the 0 to 100 consensus of the judges and code), cost, time and configuration rank (the place among all configurations on the board).
Shaded rows are the configurations chosen for the metric comparison below.
| Configuration | Writing Elo | 95% Range | Writing Score | Cost / Script | Time / Script | Reasoning Tokens | Configuration Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) | 2013 | 1977 to 2047 | 80.7 | $1.23 | 9.8 min | N/A | #30 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max) | 1950 | 1906 to 1989 | 80.1 | $0.077 | 8.9 min | 31,573 | #40 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 (high) | 1868 | 1827 to 1905 | 79.3 | $0.193 | 1.4 min | N/A | #44 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (high) | 1350 | 1272 to 1428 | 72.3 | $0.031 | 1.3 min | 8,879 | #81 |
Cost is one script at the API list price of the route used, uncached and without judging. Time is the average for one accepted script, retries included. N/A under Reasoning Tokens means the board has no separate reasoning count for that route.
Computed Findings Across Thinking Levels
Each finding is computed from the configurations above. Where two 95% ranges overlap, the board cannot order those two configurations.
- Best Configurations Head to Head. Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) at Elo 2013 (range 1977 to 2047) and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max) at Elo 1950 (range 1906 to 1989) have overlapping 95% ranges, so the board cannot separate the two best configurations.
- Lowest Thinking Levels Head to Head. At their lowest thinking levels, Claude Opus 4.8 (high) at Elo 1868 and $0.193 per script leads DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (high) at Elo 1350 and $0.031 per script by 518 Elo. Their 95% ranges do not overlap.
- Same Level Name, Side by Side. Claude Opus 4.8 has the higher Writing Elo at every level name both models use: high and max. The 95% ranges do not overlap at high. Level names come from each provider, so the same name does not promise the same reasoning budget.
- Cheapest Configuration Overlapping the Top One. DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max), at $0.077 per script, is the cheapest configuration whose 95% range overlaps that of Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort), at $1.23 per script: 1906 to 1989 against 1977 to 2047, so the board cannot separate them. Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) costs about 16 times as much per script.
- Cheapest Claude Opus 4.8 Configuration Above DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813's Best. The cheapest Claude Opus 4.8 configuration with a higher Writing Elo than DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max), at Elo 1950 and $0.077 per script, is Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort), at Elo 2013 and $1.23 per script. Their 95% ranges overlap, so the board cannot separate them. It costs about 16 times as much per script.
- Lowest to Highest Thinking Level. Claude Opus 4.8 moves +145 Elo from high to max effort, at about 6.4 times the cost per script. DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 moves +600 Elo from high to max, at about 2.5 times the cost per script.
Writing Elo at Each Shared Level Name
| Level | Claude Opus 4.8 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 | Gap | 95% Ranges |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | 1868 | 1350 | +518 | Separate |
| max | 2013 | 1950 | +63 | Overlap |
Gap is Claude Opus 4.8 minus DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 at the same level name, using each model's highest-rated configuration at that level.
Two Chosen Configurations Compared
Pick one configuration of each model to compare their metric scores, consistency across drafts and per-script scores. Each menu starts on the model's best configuration.
Scores by Metric
Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) scores higher on eight of the nine metrics and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max) on one. Weighted by each metric's share of the Writing Score, YouTube Best Practices does the most to put Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) ahead, with a 1.5-point lead on that metric. The weight beside each metric is its share of the Writing Score.
Consistency Across Drafts
| Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Score spread across drafts (±) | 2.02 | 1.48 |
| Lowest script score | 77.5 Script 4 | 78.2 Script 10 |
| Highest script score | 83.1 Script 6 | 81.5 Script 6 |
| Range across scripts | 5.6 | 3.3 |
Spread is how much the Writing Score moves between a configuration's drafts, and lower is steadier. Green marks the better number in each row.
Scores by Script
Writing Score on each reference script. Gap is Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) minus DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max), and the higher score is in bold.
| Script | Claude Opus 4.8 (max effort) | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (max) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script 1 opinion / warning explainer | 80.2 | 79.5 | +0.7 |
| Script 2 news-analysis / skeptical explainer | 80.6 | 80.6 | 0.0 |
| Script 3 personal roadmap / opinion | 79.3 | 80.8 | -1.5 |
| Script 4 short explainer | 77.5 | 78.5 | -1.0 |
| Script 5 news-analysis / opinion explainer | 80.3 | 80.9 | -0.6 |
| Script 6 founder announcement / personal origin story | 83.1 | 81.5 | +1.6 |
| Script 7 personal technical walkthrough / agentic workflow case study | 82.5 | 81.1 | +1.4 |
| Script 8 product release announcement / personal observation | 82.5 | 80.2 | +2.3 |
| Script 9 career guide / hiring analysis | 82.0 | 79.9 | +2.1 |
| Script 10 engineering process walkthrough / presentation adaptation | 78.9 | 78.2 | +0.7 |
Scorecards and Thinking Pages
Each configuration name in the table above opens its own scorecard.
Compare With Another Model
Pick a second model. A pair with its own written match-up opens that page, and any other pair opens in the comparison tool.
Nearby Match-Ups by Best Writing Elo
Every configuration wrote five drafts for each of the same 10 briefs, from the same prompt. Generation was closed-book, with the prompt as the only source and no web search or other tools. Each judge scores every draft once: Claude Opus 5.5 at medium effort through the Claude Code subscription, GPT-6.1 Sol at medium reasoning through the Codex CLI, GLM 5.3 Flash through OpenRouter, and Jev 1.13, a typed judge from TypeSafe that answers each metric as a multiple-choice question. The channel's finished script is their reference for the voice, and it gets no score on the board itself.
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