Claude Opus 4.6 Launched: Anthropic’s New AI Model to Dominate Coding & Reasoning Benchmarks; Challenging GPT-5.2

Anthropic has officially debuted Claude Opus 4.6, their most advanced AI model yet, with major improvements in reasoning, coding, and long-context processing. The release intensifies competition with OpenAI's GPT and Google's Gemini by claiming state-of-the-art performance on key benchmarks for economically valuable work and agentic coding.

Technical Specifications and Key Features

Claude Opus 4.6 represents a substantial leap in capability, headlined by a beta 1 million token context window—a first for the Opus model line. This allows the model to process and retain information across extremely long documents, codebases, or analytical sessions with reduced "context rot." The model supports outputs up to 128,000 tokens and introduces new developer controls, including adaptive thinking for reasoning depth and context compaction for extended agentic workflows.

Benchmark Performance and Capabilities

Anthropic positions Opus 4.6 as a leader in complex, autonomous tasks. The model achieves top scores on several critical evaluations:

• Terminal-Bench 2.0: Leads in agentic coding performance.
• Humanity’s Last Exam: Tops this multidisciplinary reasoning test.
• GDPval-AA: According to reports, it outperforms OpenAI's GPT-5.2 by about 144 Elo points on banking and legal analysis tasks.
• MRCR v2: Scores 76% on this "needle-in-a-haystack" retrieval testwithin a 1M token context, a major improvement over previous models.

The company notes enhanced performance in code review, debugging, and the ability to sustain long-running agentic workflows with greater planning precision.

Safety and Security Enhancements

According to Anthropic’s released system card, the performance gains do not compromise safety alignment. Opus 4.6 demonstrates low rates of misaligned behavior, such as deception, and exhibits fewer unnecessary refusals compared to prior Claude models. In response to the model's improved capabilities, Anthropic has introduced new cybersecurity probes to evaluate both its defensive and offensive security potential.

API, Product Integration, and Availability

The model is available immediately via the Anthropic API, on claude.ai, and across major cloud platforms. Key product integrations include:

• Claude Code: Now features "agent teams" for parallel work on large codebase reviews.
• Cowork Environment: Allows for autonomous multi-step task execution, combining talents such as analysis and document creation.
• Office Suite: Upgrades in Excel and a research preview for PowerPoint integration for Max, Team, and Enterprise users.

Pricing remains unchanged at $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens.

Analysis: Impact on the AI Competitive Landscape

The launch of Opus 4.6 directly takes on competitors at the cutting edge of AI, especially in areas needing deep reasoning across large data sets. By improving coding independence, financial analysis, and long-context accuracy, Anthropic is aiming at high-value enterprise and developer needs. Strong benchmark results, particularly on GDPval-AA, point to a clear strategy to win ground in professional and analytical uses.

FAQs:

Q: What is the context window for Claude Opus 4.6?

A: Claude Opus 4.6 introduces a 1 million token context window in beta, allowing it to process vastly more information in a single session.

Q: How does Opus 4.6 perform compared to GPT-5.2?

A: According to Anthropic, Opus 4.6 exceeds GPT-5.2 by around 144 Elo points on the GDPval-AA benchmark, which measures performance on financial and legal activities.

Q: Is Claude Opus 4.6 available now?

A: Yes, the model is available as of today on claude.ai, through the Anthropic API, and on major cloud platforms.