Claude Opus 4.6 dropped on February 5, 2026 (see current pricing details), and it's Anthropic's most powerful AI model yet — and in our head-to-head with GPT-5.3, it holds its own. With a 1M token context window, agent teams, and dramatically improved coding abilities (here's how it compares to Codex CLI), this isn't just an incremental update—it's a leap forward for anyone building with AI.
Whether you're a developer looking to supercharge your coding workflow, an enterprise evaluating AI solutions, or just curious about what makes Opus 4.6 special, this guide covers everything: features, pricing, benchmarks, and real-world use cases.
What Makes Claude Opus 4.6 Different?
Opus 4.6 represents a significant evolution from its predecessor, Opus 4.5. Here's what sets it apart:
- 1M Token Context Window (Beta) — Process massive codebases, entire books, or months of conversation history in a single prompt
- Agent Teams — Spin up multiple AI agents that work in parallel and coordinate autonomously
- Improved Agentic Coding — Plans more carefully, sustains tasks longer, handles larger codebases, and catches its own mistakes
- Enhanced Reasoning — Thinks deeper on complex problems, revises reasoning before settling on answers
- 128K Output Tokens — Generate longer responses without breaking into multiple requests
- Adaptive Thinking — The model decides when deeper reasoning is helpful, rather than binary on/off
Claude Opus 4.6 Features Deep Dive
1. The 1M Context Window
This is the headline feature. Opus 4.6 is the first Opus-class model with a 1 million token context window. To put that in perspective:
- ~750,000 words of text
- Multiple entire codebases
- Hundreds of documents
- Years of chat history
The real breakthrough isn't just the size—it's how well the model maintains performance across that context. On the 8-needle variant of MRCR v2 (a needle-in-a-haystack benchmark), Opus 4.6 scores 76% while Sonnet 4.5 scores just 18.5%. That's a qualitative shift in how much context a model can actually use while maintaining peak performance.
2. Agent Teams in Claude Code
This is huge for developers. You can now spin up multiple agents that work in parallel as a team:
- Agents coordinate autonomously
- Best for tasks that split into independent, read-heavy work
- Perfect for codebase reviews, multi-file refactoring, and parallel debugging
- Take over any subagent directly using Shift+Up/Down or tmux
Think of it as having a team of senior developers who can review different parts of your codebase simultaneously, then synthesize their findings.
3. Effort Controls
Opus 4.6 tends to think deeply—sometimes too deeply for simple tasks. Anthropic added four effort levels to give you control:
| Effort Level | Best For | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Low | Simple queries, quick lookups | Fastest, lowest cost |
| Medium | Standard tasks, balanced workflows | Good balance |
| High (Default) | Complex problems, agentic tasks | More thorough, higher cost |
| Max | Hardest problems, research tasks | Deepest reasoning, highest cost |
4. Context Compaction
Long-running conversations and agentic tasks often hit the context window. Context compaction automatically summarizes and replaces older context when the conversation approaches a configurable threshold. This lets Claude perform longer tasks without hitting limits—crucial for autonomous agents running for hours.
5. Claude in Excel and PowerPoint
Opus 4.6 isn't just for developers. Anthropic upgraded Claude in Excel with:
- Improved handling of long-running and harder tasks
- Planning before acting
- Ingesting unstructured data and inferring the right structure
- Handling multi-step changes in one pass
Claude in PowerPoint is now available in research preview for Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. It reads your layouts, fonts, and slide masters to stay on brand, whether building from a template or generating a full deck from a description.
Claude Opus 4.6 Pricing Breakdown
Let's talk money. Here's the complete Claude Opus 4.6 pricing structure:
API Pricing
| Token Type | Standard (≤200K) | Extended (>200K) |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $5 per million tokens | $10 per million tokens |
| Output | $25 per million tokens | $37.50 per million tokens |
| Cache Write | $6.25 per million tokens | $12.50 per million tokens |
| Cache Read | $0.50 per million tokens | $1 per million tokens |
Cost-saving options:
- Batch processing: 50% discount for async workloads
- Prompt caching: Up to 90% savings on repeated prompts
- US-only inference: Available at 1.1x pricing for compliance needs
Consumer Plans (Claude Pro/Max)
| Plan | Price | Opus 4.6 Access |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited access |
| Pro | $17/month (annual) or $20/month | Full access + Claude Code |
| Max | From $100/month | 5x-20x more usage + PowerPoint |
Opus 4.6 vs Sonnet 4.5 vs Haiku 4.5: Which Should You Use?
This is the question everyone asks. Here's the honest breakdown:
| Model | Best For | Input/Output Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Opus 4.6 | Complex reasoning, agentic coding, long-context tasks | $5/$25 per MTok |
| Sonnet 4.5 | Balanced tasks, production workloads, cost efficiency | $3/$15 per MTok |
| Haiku 4.5 | High-volume, simple tasks, real-time applications | $1/$5 per MTok |
When to Use Opus 4.6
- Building autonomous agents that run for hours
- Complex codebase analysis or migration
- Tasks requiring deep reasoning across massive context
- When accuracy matters more than cost
- Financial analysis and research workflows
- Legal document review
When to Stick with Sonnet
- Production workloads where cost matters
- Standard coding assistance
- Most everyday tasks
- When you don't need the 1M context window
When Haiku Makes Sense
- High-volume API calls
- Simple classification or extraction tasks
- Real-time chat applications where latency matters
- Cost-sensitive prototyping
Benchmark Results: How Good Is Opus 4.6 Really?
The benchmarks are impressive. Here's how Opus 4.6 performs on key evaluations:
| Benchmark | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 65.4% | Highest score (agentic coding) |
| Humanity's Last Exam | #1 | Leads all frontier models |
| GDPval-AA | +144 Elo vs GPT-5.2 | Finance/legal knowledge work |
| BrowseComp | #1 | Finding hard-to-locate information |
| MRCR v2 (1M, 8-needle) | 76% | vs Sonnet 4.5's 18.5% |
| BigLaw Bench | 90.2% | Legal reasoning |
The GDPval-AA result is particularly notable—Opus 4.6 outperforms GPT-5.2 approximately 70% of the time on economically valuable knowledge work tasks.
Real-World Use Cases for Claude Opus 4.6
1. Enterprise Code Migration
One early access partner reported that Opus 4.6 "handled a multi-million-line codebase migration like a senior engineer. It planned up front, adapted its strategy as it learned, and finished in half the time."
2. Autonomous Issue Management
In testing, Opus 4.6 "autonomously closed 13 issues and assigned 12 issues to the right team members in a single day, managing a ~50-person organization across 6 repositories."
3. Cybersecurity Investigations
Trail of Bits reported: "Across 40 cybersecurity investigations, Claude Opus 4.6 produced the best results 38 of 40 times in a blind ranking against Claude 4.5 models."
4. Financial Research
Opus 4.6 excels at multi-source analysis across legal, financial, and technical content. Box's evaluation showed a 10% lift in performance, reaching 68% vs. a 58% baseline.
5. Design and Prototyping
Figma Make reports that Opus 4.6 "generates complex, interactive apps and prototypes with an impressive creative range. The model translates detailed designs and multi-layered tasks into code on the first try."
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Claude Opus 4.6
1. Use Effort Controls Strategically
Default (high) is great for complex tasks, but dial down to medium or low for simpler queries. You'll save money and get faster responses without sacrificing quality on straightforward work.
2. Leverage Prompt Caching
If you're making repeated API calls with similar context, prompt caching can cut costs by up to 90%. Cache reads are just $0.50 per million tokens vs $5 for fresh input.
3. Try Agent Teams for Parallel Work
For codebase reviews or multi-file refactoring, spin up agent teams in Claude Code. They'll work in parallel and coordinate autonomously—much faster than sequential processing.
4. Use Compaction for Long Sessions
If you're running long agentic tasks, enable context compaction. It'll summarize older context automatically so you don't hit limits mid-task.
5. Start with Sonnet, Upgrade When Needed
For most tasks, Sonnet 4.5 is more cost-effective. Reserve Opus 4.6 for complex reasoning, massive context, or when you need the absolute best performance.
How to Access Claude Opus 4.6
Opus 4.6 is available across multiple platforms:
- claude.ai — Direct access via Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plans
- Claude API — Use model ID
claude-opus-4-6 - Amazon Bedrock — Available for AWS customers
- Google Cloud Vertex AI — Available for GCP customers
- Claude Code — Terminal-based coding assistant
The Bottom Line
Claude Opus 4.6 is Anthropic's best model yet—and it's not close. The combination of 1M context, agent teams, improved coding abilities, and state-of-the-art benchmarks makes it the go-to choice for complex AI work.
But it's not for everyone. At $5/$25 per million tokens, Opus 4.6 costs significantly more than Sonnet ($3/$15) or Haiku ($1/$5). For most everyday tasks, Sonnet remains the better value.
Use Opus 4.6 when you need:
- Massive context windows
- Complex, multi-step reasoning
- Autonomous agents that run for hours
- The absolute best performance, regardless of cost
For everything else, there's Sonnet.
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