Claude Opus 4.6 Launches: A New Standard in AI Reasoning & Coding

Name: Claude Opus 4.6 Launches: A New Standard in AI Reasoning & Coding - Video
Uploaded: 2026-02-07T10:08:59.947Z
Description: Claude Opus 4.6 Launches: A New Standard in AI Reasoning & Coding

2/7/2026

The frontier of artificial intelligence has just expanded. Anthropic officially unveiled Claude Opus 4.6 on February 5, 2026, marking a significant leap forward in what we can expect from generative AI. This isn't just an iterative update; it represents a fundamental shift in "agentic" capabilities—the ability of AI to act autonomously, plan, and execute complex tasks with a level of precision previously unseen. Dominating the Benchmarks The data speaks volumes. According to the release notes, Opus 4.6 is now the industry leader in knowledge work and coding. In the GDPval-AA Elo scores, which measure performance in economically valuable tasks like finance and legal work, Opus 4.6 achieved a score of 1606. To put this in perspective, its closest competitor, OpenAI’s GPT-5.2, scored 1462, while Gemini 3 Pro trailed at 1195. This 144-point lead over the next-best model is a massive gap in the world of AI metrics. https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F6e29759b50e8b3a8363b38b1f573d854df968671-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 For developers, the news is even better. The "Terminal-Bench 2.0" evaluation shows Opus 4.6 hitting 65.4% accuracy in agentic coding, edging out GPT-5.2-codex. The model doesn’t just write code; it plans, reviews its own work, and debugs with a "senior engineer" mindset. It sustains these tasks over longer periods without losing the thread, a crucial improvement for real-world software engineering. https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F018d6d882034d50727948b22e3ad3844a43ee09c-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 Solving "Context Rot" with 1 Million Tokens One of the most persistent issues in Large Language Models (LLMs) has been "context rot"—the tendency for models to degrade in performance as the conversation gets longer. Opus 4.6 addresses this head-on. With a new 1M token context window (currently in beta), it demonstrates superior long-term memory. https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2Fb8cfd7ebd6c82febce5f428f519d68a5dcf5d16f-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 The MRCR v2 benchmark results are particularly telling. In long-context retrieval tasks involving 1 million tokens, Opus 4.6 maintained a match ratio of 76.0%. In stark contrast, the Sonnet 4.5 model managed only 18.5%. This capability transforms the model from a simple text processor into a reliable research assistant capable of digesting entire libraries of documentation without missing a single detail. https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2Fb8d511155f209c57e4d6a92ab115ebfc7c8832ff-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 Adaptive Thinking and Agent Teams Anthropic is also introducing "Adaptive Thinking." Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, Opus 4.6 can assess the complexity of a prompt and decide autonomously when to engage deeper reasoning faculties. This efficiency is paired with new tools in Claude Code, allowing developers to spin up "Agent Teams." These AI agents can work in parallel—one reviewing code while another writes documentation—coordinating their efforts just like a human team would. Furthermore, the integration into everyday workflows has been deepened. "Claude in Excel" can now handle unstructured data and infer structures without hand-holding, while "Claude in PowerPoint" can build full slide decks from those analyses. It bridges the gap between raw data and executive presentation seamlessly. https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F0e5c55fa8fd05a893d11168654dc36999e90908b-2600x2968.png&w=3840&q=75 Safety and Availability Despite its increased power, safety hasn't been compromised. The system card reveals that Opus 4.6 has a lower rate of misaligned behavior (such as deception or sycophancy) compared to competitors, maintaining the "helpful and harmless" ethos Anthropic is known for. https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2Fae7ae61aefff3c9b059975957335785f8ebd59d6-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F9a32a76a983d4c8f709683b38ff3af6664b5128a-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 The model is available starting today via the API and claude.ai. Pricing remains competitive at $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens for standard requests. However, for power users leveraging the massive context window (over 200k tokens), a premium pricing tier applies. With Opus 4.6, Anthropic has not only caught up to the competition but, by many metrics, has surged ahead, setting a new benchmark for 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F9a32a76a983d4c8f709683b38ff3af6664b5128a-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F9a32a76a983d4c8f709683b38ff3af6664b5128a-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F653e04afc43612d3a0f8427da86b6549800005f9-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F542044519014a793cf042a08a730ebd8977c57b0-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F6c1b33e985bcae9163b77bc25620e85abd5d9a7b-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F8a421f45125743fd9e9078aae992c6e5f236a3da-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2Ff7dff66d47d54dfaabddc82bf9b96658df00634a-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75 https://www.anthropic.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-cdn.anthropic.com%2Fimages%2F4zrzovbb%2Fwebsite%2F569d748607388e6ed42e3ff0ff245d9b0cde6878-3840x2160.png&w=3840&q=75