Claude Opus 4.6: Anthropic's Best

Claude Opus 4.6 is Anthropic's flagship - their most capable model, positioned above Claude Sonnet 4.6. It's the premium option when quality matters more than cost.

Pricing

• Prompt tokens: $5.00 per million
• Completion tokens: $25.00 per million

This is notably more expensive than other models. For comparison, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is $3/$15, and GPT-5.4 is $2.50/$15. You're paying for Anthropic's top-tier intelligence.

What It's Good For

Opus 4.6 is for when you want the best output Anthropic can produce:

• Complex analysis requiring nuanced reasoning
• High-stakes writing where polish matters
• Tasks where Claude Sonnet 4.6 isn't quite cutting it

It supports vision, web search, image generation, Canvas, reasoning mode, and PDF analysis. The one gap: no code interpreter (use GPT-5.4 if you need that).

The Honest Question: Do You Need It?

For most tasks, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is excellent and significantly cheaper. Opus 4.6 makes sense when:

• You're creating something important (board presentations, client deliverables)
• Sonnet's output isn't meeting your quality bar
• The cost difference is negligible for your use case

If you're unsure, start with Sonnet. You can always switch to Opus 4.6 if you need more.

When to Use Something Else

• For everyday work: Claude Sonnet 4.6 handles most tasks at lower cost
• For code execution: GPT-5.4 has code interpreter
• For huge context: Gemini 3.1 Pro offers 1M tokens vs Opus's 200K
• For budget-conscious work: GPT-5.4 Mini is a fraction of the cost

Getting Started

Select Claude Opus 4.6 from the model dropdown. Give it clear, detailed instructions - you're paying for a capable model, so make the most of it.

One practical tip: use Opus 4.6 for the final polish. Draft with Sonnet, then switch to Opus for the version that matters.