Best Claude model for code
For code with Claude, use Sonnet 5.5 at high effort.
Sonnet 5.5 at high effort
High efforteffort = high
Anthropic's best model for agentic coding (70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0), at half the price of Opus. Medium effort is enough for small, well-scoped edits.
How it compares
Prices are in US dollars per million tokens, input then output. Sonnet 5.5 costs $2 / $10.
| Model | Price | Against the pick |
|---|---|---|
| Opus 5.5 | $4 / $20 | Twice the price and lower on agentic coding (66.4%). Use it to plan the architecture, then hand the coding to Sonnet. |
| Fable 5.1 | $10 / $50 | Five times the price. Keep it for a bug that Sonnet and Opus both failed to fix. |
| Haiku 5.5 | $0.10 / $0.50 | A cheap subagent for side jobs. Keep a stronger model as your main coder. |
| Sonnet 5Older | $2 / $10 | The previous generation, at the same price, so there's no reason to stay on it. |
Setting it in the API
In an API request, set the model and effort like this:
model: "claude-sonnet-5-5", output_config: { effort: "high" }
Maintained by the AI team at Vegan Hacktivists
Prices are per million tokens, input / output. We pick for the best result per dollar, so a pricier model can score higher and still lose out. This pick last changed Oct 9, 2026. Sources: Anthropic docs, OpenAI docs, Gemini docs, Artificial Analysis, Vals AI.Last checked Oct 12, 2026.
Other picks
Claude for everyday work, research, agents and automations.
Other labs for code: OpenAI, Gemini.
Open the interactive picker to switch between labs and tasks.
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