Bench report · BR-003Rank 03 / 10 on the benchTested 2026-06-30 → 07-06

deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro

The generalist of the bench. Ten runs across five task types, graded blind against Claude. Nothing flashy, nothing broken — read the code generation entry for the one asterisk.

Code generation

MIXED

We handed it a real file from our billing service and asked for a refactor that a careless model gets wrong in a way that costs money.

Prompt · Run it yourself

Refactor this webhook handler so a retried delivery can never double-charge a customer. Keep the public interface identical. Do not remove existing logging or the retry backoff. Explain the one change that matters most, in two sentences, before the code.

[paste your own webhook/handler file here]

What a pass looks like

Idempotency key on the charge write, interface untouched, retry logic intact, tests still green.

What it did

Second attempt got the idempotency key right, but it rewrote the log format along the way. We restored it by hand — that edit is the asterisk.

Cost: $0.009
Latency: 12.8s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.034 · 12.1s
Attempts: 2 of 2

Extraction

PASS

Twelve scanned invoices, some smudged. The trap is in the last line: models love to guess.

Prompt · Run it yourself

Extract every line item from these invoices into a JSON array: {vendor, sku, qty, unit_price, total}. If any field is unreadable, set it to null — do not guess. Return only JSON.

[attach 10–12 of your own invoices or receipts]

What a pass looks like

Valid JSON, exact values on clean scans, honest nulls on the smudged ones, zero commentary.

What it did

12/12 on clean fields with honest nulls on the smudged rows. Not the fastest extraction on the bench, but exact.

Cost: $0.007
Latency: 8.9s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.028 · 4.9s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Summarization

PASS

A 40-page vendor contract. The rubric cares about one thing: does it find the clauses that cost you money later.

Prompt · Run it yourself

Summarize this contract in 300 words or less. Then list every date-based obligation, auto-renewal, and termination clause — each with its page number. If you are not sure of a page number, say so.

[paste a long contract or policy doc you actually use]

What a pass looks like

All clauses found, page numbers right, and it admits uncertainty instead of inventing precision.

What it did

Every clause with correct page numbers, and it flagged one reference as uncertain — the only non-baseline that hedged where it should. Slowest run of its ten.

Cost: $0.011
Latency: 16.2s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.031 · 9.4s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Agentic tool use

PASS

Six steps, three tools, one approval gate. Most of the bench either skips the approval or loops.

Prompt · Run it yourself

You have three tools: crm_search, crm_update, crm_merge. Find duplicate contacts created after 2026-01-01 and merge them, keeping the record with the most recent activity. Show me your full plan and wait for my approval before calling any write tool.

[wire up to your own sandbox/tools — never production first]

What a pass looks like

A correct plan, a real stop at the approval gate, and recovery if a tool call fails.

What it did

Laid out all six steps, waited at the approval gate, and took the injected failure on step 3 in stride. One retry, clean finish.

Cost: $0.012
Latency: 34.5s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.041 · 26.2s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Classification

PASS

500 real support tickets, 8 queues, human labels as ground truth. Pass bar is 90% agreement.

Prompt · Run it yourself

Classify each ticket into exactly one queue: billing, bug, feature-request, account, abuse, sales, docs, other. Reply as CSV, ticket_id,queue — one row per ticket, no header, no commentary.

[export a few hundred of your own tickets or emails]

What a pass looks like

≥ 90% agreement with human labels and a parseable CSV on the first try.

What it did

96% agreement with human labels — the best classification score on the bench, baselines included. Valid CSV, zero commentary.

Cost: $0.009
Latency: 12.0s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.019 · 7.7s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Bottom line // BR-003

The safe pick when you don't know the workload yet. Only the baselines beat it, and neither beats it on price — just budget extra seconds for long documents.

1
Two attempts per test. Best attempt is graded; both are logged.
2
Graded blind — outputs are anonymized before scoring against the rubric.
3
Costs are provider list price at test date, prompt + completion tokens.
4
Test data is ours — real invoices, a real codebase, real tickets. Swap in yours.

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Bench report · BR-003Rank 03 / 10 on the benchTested 2026-06-30 → 07-06

deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro

The generalist of the bench. Ten runs across five task types, graded blind against Claude. Nothing flashy, nothing broken — read the code generation entry for the one asterisk.

Code generation

MIXED

We handed it a real file from our billing service and asked for a refactor that a careless model gets wrong in a way that costs money.

Prompt · Run it yourself

[paste your own webhook/handler file here]

What a pass looks like

Idempotency key on the charge write, interface untouched, retry logic intact, tests still green.

What it did

Second attempt got the idempotency key right, but it rewrote the log format along the way. We restored it by hand — that edit is the asterisk.

Cost: $0.009
Latency: 12.8s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.034 · 12.1s
Attempts: 2 of 2

Extraction

PASS

Twelve scanned invoices, some smudged. The trap is in the last line: models love to guess.

Prompt · Run it yourself

Extract every line item from these invoices into a JSON array: {vendor, sku, qty, unit_price, total}. If any field is unreadable, set it to null — do not guess. Return only JSON.

[attach 10–12 of your own invoices or receipts]

What a pass looks like

Valid JSON, exact values on clean scans, honest nulls on the smudged ones, zero commentary.

What it did

12/12 on clean fields with honest nulls on the smudged rows. Not the fastest extraction on the bench, but exact.

Cost: $0.007
Latency: 8.9s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.028 · 4.9s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Summarization

PASS

A 40-page vendor contract. The rubric cares about one thing: does it find the clauses that cost you money later.

Prompt · Run it yourself

Summarize this contract in 300 words or less. Then list every date-based obligation, auto-renewal, and termination clause — each with its page number. If you are not sure of a page number, say so.

[paste a long contract or policy doc you actually use]

What a pass looks like

All clauses found, page numbers right, and it admits uncertainty instead of inventing precision.

What it did

Every clause with correct page numbers, and it flagged one reference as uncertain — the only non-baseline that hedged where it should. Slowest run of its ten.

Cost: $0.011
Latency: 16.2s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.031 · 9.4s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Agentic tool use

PASS

Six steps, three tools, one approval gate. Most of the bench either skips the approval or loops.

Prompt · Run it yourself

[wire up to your own sandbox/tools — never production first]

What a pass looks like

A correct plan, a real stop at the approval gate, and recovery if a tool call fails.

What it did

Laid out all six steps, waited at the approval gate, and took the injected failure on step 3 in stride. One retry, clean finish.

Cost: $0.012
Latency: 34.5s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.041 · 26.2s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Classification

PASS

500 real support tickets, 8 queues, human labels as ground truth. Pass bar is 90% agreement.

Prompt · Run it yourself

Classify each ticket into exactly one queue: billing, bug, feature-request, account, abuse, sales, docs, other. Reply as CSV, ticket_id,queue — one row per ticket, no header, no commentary.

[export a few hundred of your own tickets or emails]

What a pass looks like

≥ 90% agreement with human labels and a parseable CSV on the first try.

What it did

96% agreement with human labels — the best classification score on the bench, baselines included. Valid CSV, zero commentary.

Cost: $0.009
Latency: 12.0s
Baseline (Claude): PASS · $0.019 · 7.7s
Attempts: 1 of 2

Bottom line // BR-003

The safe pick when you don't know the workload yet. Only the baselines beat it, and neither beats it on price — just budget extra seconds for long documents.

1
Two attempts per test. Best attempt is graded; both are logged.
2
Graded blind — outputs are anonymized before scoring against the rubric.
3
Costs are provider list price at test date, prompt + completion tokens.
4
Test data is ours — real invoices, a real codebase, real tickets. Swap in yours.