Anthropic's Claude AI model to become more efficient with Opus 4.6 update

Anthropic's most powerful Claude model is getting an upgrade, as the company has announced in a blog post that Claude Opus 4.6 will be even more flexible in coding and project creation from the beginning.

This levelling-up comes while the previous version, Claude Opus 4.5, has already proven efficient at coding, as it sparked overwhelming buzz following its November release, thanks to its vibe-coding.

The new Claude model focuses on tackling major challenges, such as understanding complex applications, while also overlooking simpler tasks.

Opus 4.6 is a reasoning model that breaks down the steps needed to fulfil user requests and makes a plan before doing something. It can also review its work, often making multiple attempts to refine its own output without prompting.

Claude's 'high' effort level can be adjusted

The only downside of this AI model is that it can sometimes put excessive effort into insignificant tasks, a concern Anthropic addresses by allowing users to adjust the effort level from the default "high" setting.

The Claude Opus models are available to paying users on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. Claude's Pro plan starts at $20 per month (or $17 with annual billing). It includes usage limits that can be reached quickly during intensive coding sessions.

In testing, CNet reportedly tasked Claude Opus 4.6 with creating a voice-operated trivia app. The process involved several iterations over about an hour, and Claude produced results rapidly.

While troubleshooting and input were needed, the model grasped the required objectives more effectively than previous Opus versions.