AI Model Release Tracker - Timeline of Major AI Models from 2022-2026

Home/Compare/Claude Opus 4.1 vs DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview

Claude Opus 4.1 vs DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview

2 vs 0 benchmarks won

Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.1
DeepSeek
DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview
Overview
CompanyAnthropicDeepSeek
Release dateAug 5 2025Nov 20 2024
Model type
Open sourceNoYes
Specifications
Parameters
Context window
Benchmarks
Science reasoning
GPQA Diamond
80.9%
Software engineering
SWE-Bench Verified
74.5%
Multimodal understanding
MMMU
Timeline
Release gapDeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview shipped 258 days before Claude Opus 4.1

Which is better: Claude Opus 4.1 or DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview?

Claude Opus 4.1 leads DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview on 2 of the tracked benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, SWE-Bench Verified, MMMU). DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview shipped 258 days before Claude Opus 4.1, so benchmark comparisons should account for the intervening progress.

DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview is an open-source / open-weight model; Claude Opus 4.1 is proprietary.

Direct benchmark comparisons are unavailable — at least one of these models has not published scores on GPQA Diamond, SWE-Bench Verified, or MMMU.

Frequently asked questions

When was Claude Opus 4.1 released?
Claude Opus 4.1 was released by Anthropic on Aug 5 2025.
When was DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview released?
DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview was released by DeepSeek on Nov 20 2024.
Is Claude Opus 4.1 or DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview open source?
DeepSeek-R1-Lite Preview is an open-source / open-weight model released by DeepSeek. Claude Opus 4.1 is a proprietary model released by Anthropic.

Other comparisons