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Claude Opus 4.6

Anthropic · Claude 4

Anthropic's flagship Claude model for high-difficulty reasoning, coding, and long-running agent workflows.

Type
multimodal
Context
200K tokens
Max Output
128K tokens
Status
current
Input
$5/1M tok
Output
$25/1M tok
API Access
Yes
License
proprietary
reasoning coding agentic vision tool-use long-context
Released January 2026 · Updated February 15, 2026

Overview

Freshness note: Model capabilities, limits, and pricing can change quickly. This profile is a point-in-time snapshot last verified on February 15, 2026.

Claude Opus 4.6 is Anthropic’s current top-tier model for complex agentic and reasoning-heavy work. In Anthropic’s lineup, Sonnet is usually the cost-performance default, while Opus is the premium option when reliability on hard tasks matters more than raw speed. It is designed for high-stakes knowledge work: multi-step planning, deep code changes, long-context analysis, and tool-driven workflows.

Compared with earlier Opus tiers, the 4.6 generation is materially cheaper per token and supports larger outputs, which makes it more practical for production agents that need both depth and long responses.

Capabilities

Opus 4.6 is strongest when tasks require sustained coherence over many steps:

  • Complex reasoning with fewer dropped constraints across long prompts.
  • Strong coding performance for large refactors, bug isolation, and architecture-sensitive changes.
  • Better long-horizon tool use, including function/tool loops that need planning and recovery.
  • High-quality instruction following for structured responses and policy-constrained workflows.
  • Solid multimodal understanding for image-plus-text analysis in docs, diagrams, and UI workflows.

In practice, teams usually route “hard tickets” or “final pass” tasks to Opus and keep lighter workloads on cheaper models.

Technical Details

Anthropic positions Opus 4.6 as its most capable model in the Claude 4 generation. Official model docs list:

  • 200K default context window, with 1M-context beta support in eligible tiers.
  • 128K max output tokens.
  • Support for text and image input, text output, and tool use.
  • Adaptive/extended thinking capabilities for complex reasoning workloads.

Claude API aliasing is also relevant operationally: aliases track latest snapshots, while pinned version IDs are preferred for strict reproducibility in production.

Pricing & Access

Base API pricing (per 1M tokens) is:

  • Input: $5
  • Output: $25

Long-context requests above 200K input tokens are priced at higher rates. Batch pricing is discounted, and prompt caching remains available for cost control.

Access options:

  • Anthropic API (direct)
  • AWS Bedrock
  • Google Vertex AI
  • Claude consumer/workspace products for interactive use

For production systems, most teams pair Opus with routing logic so only difficult requests hit Opus rates.

Best Use Cases

Choose Opus 4.6 when you need maximum quality over cost:

  • Multi-file or multi-repo coding tasks with strict correctness requirements.
  • Agent loops that must maintain plan integrity across many tool calls.
  • Legal, compliance, or research synthesis where nuance and citation quality matter.
  • Long document review with complex instruction constraints and structured output.

Less ideal use cases are high-volume, low-complexity tasks where lower-cost models achieve acceptable quality.

Comparisons

  • GPT-5 (OpenAI): Similar frontier tier for difficult coding and agentic workflows; model choice often depends on tool stack, latency profile, and pricing strategy.
  • Gemini 3 Pro Preview (Google): Very strong multimodal and long-context option; Opus often wins on conservative instruction adherence in enterprise workflows.
  • Grok 4 (xAI): Competitive reasoning profile and strong tool-centric positioning; Opus currently has broader mature enterprise deployment paths across major cloud channels.