It is surely the best model for programming, but it still has a big problem

Anthropic has announced Claude Opus 4.5, its most advanced AI model to date. The company claims it is the best in the world for programming, intelligent agents and computing usage, beating OpenAI’s GPT-5.1 Codex-Max and Google’s Gemini 3 Pro.

It has also arrived a few days after both as well as Grok 4.1.

The general overview. The new model has achieved 80.9% accuracy in SWE-Bench Verified, the benchmark reference to evaluate software engineering capabilities.

Anthropic has also put it through its own hiring test for engineers – notably difficult, with a two-hour limit – and the model has outperformed every human candidate who took it.

Why is it important. This release solidifies Anthropic as a leader in AI tools for programming. Even Meta uses Claude for its internal Devmate code assistantdespite competing directly with the company in other areas.

The improvements are not limited to the code. Opus 4.5 stands out in:

• Creation of documents, spreadsheets and professional presentations.
• Deep research tasks with multiple sources.
• Advanced visual and mathematical reasoning.
• Management of subagent teams for complex multi-agent systems.

In figures. Additionally, Anthropic has drastically reduced the price of its API: from $15/75 per million tokens entrance/exit at 5/25 dollars. And the model is more efficient than its predecessors:

• In medium effort mode, it equals the performance of Sonnet 4.5 but consumes 76% less tokens.
• In high mode, it beats Sonnet 4.5 by 4.3 percentage points using 48% less tokens.

The context. The company has introduced that “effort” parameter (low, medium, high) that allows developers to control how long and tokens invests the model in solving a problem. It is a trend that OpenAI has also adopted in its latest modelsseeking efficiency without sacrificing quality.

In detail. Along with the model, Anthropic has updated its development platform and consumer applications:

• Claude Code Improves your planning mode: Asks clarifying questions before creating an editable execution plan file. As seen with the Deep Research on duty.
• Claude for Chrome is now available to all Max users (around $100-$200 per month depending on limits), allowing AI to manage tasks across multiple browser tabs.
• Claude for Excel opens to Max, Team, and Enterprise users, with support for charts, pivot tables, and file uploads.
• Endless conversations– Long conversations no longer run into context window limits thanks to automatic summaries.

Yes, but. The big problem with Opus 4.5 and Claude in general is its usage limit. Even for Pro and Max subscribers of the first levelthe tokens They sell out quickly. They take five hours to restart from the first message sent. The Opus model, being the most powerful, is also the one that consumes the quotas the fastest.

This is the main source of frustration for users who pay $20 or even $100 a month. Anthropic has slightly increased the limits for Max and Team Premium, but the experience is still far from what is expected in a service of this category.

Between the lines. The release of Opus 4.5 restores balance to the Anthropic model family. For the past two months, Sonnet 4.5 was outperforming the older Opus 4.1, leaving little reason to use the more expensive model. Now, with three clearly differentiated models (Haiku, Sonnet and Opus), each one has a specific purpose in terms of cost, speed and capacity.

And now what. Anthropic follows a clear strategy: position itself as the premium provider for knowledge professionals and developers, competing directly with OpenAI and Google in the field where accuracy and reliability matter most.

But if you don’t solve the problem of usage limits, you risk frustrating the very users who could get the most value from the model.

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Featured image | Anthropic