Opus 4.6 is Anthropic’s strongest model for coding and long-running professional tasks. It is built for agents that operate across entire workflows rather than single prompts, making it especially effective for large codebases, complex refactors, and multi-step debugging that unfolds over time. The model shows deeper contextual understanding, stronger problem decomposition, and greater reliability on hard engineering tasks than prior generations. Beyond coding, Opus 4.6 excels at sustained knowledge work. It produces near-production-ready documents, plans, and analyses in a single pass, and maintains coherence across very long outputs and extended sessions. This makes it a strong default for tasks that require persistence, judgment, and follow-through, such as technical design, migration planning, and end-to-end project execution. For users upgrading from earlier Opus versions, see our [official migration guide here](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/guides/model-migrations/claude-4-6-opus)
Claude 4.6 Opus is designed for sustained, complex knowledge work and multi-step engineering tasks. It features deep reasoning capabilities, exceptional context retention, and strict adherence to architectural constraints, making it highly effective for codebase refactoring, migration planning, and agentic task execution.
To interact with this model via an OpenAI-compatible interface, OpenRouter gateway, or direct Anthropic API:
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
model |
string |
Yes | Use "anthropic/claude-4-6-opus", "claude-opus-4-6", or native "claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219" equivalent. |
messages |
array |
Yes | Array of standard conversation objects (role/content). |
max_tokens |
integer |
Yes | Sets the ceiling for total token generation (including thinking and visible output). Required when thinking is enabled. |
thinking |
object |
No | Configuration for the model's reasoning capabilities. See Thinking Mode Configuration below. |
output_config |
object |
No | Controls reasoning effort and depth when adaptive thinking is active. |
temperature |
float |
No | Recommended: 0.0 or 0.1 for precise engineering tasks. Note: Must be 1.0 if thinking is enabled. |
system |
string |
No | Specific system instruction string (if passed at root level). |
Claude 4.6 Opus utilizes an updated Adaptive Thinking mechanism. The older "type": "enabled" and budget_tokens parameters are deprecated for this model. To control the model's deep reasoning, use the new adaptive configuration combined with output_config.
thinking is included in the request, temperature must be set to 1.0 (or omitted, as it defaults to 1.0). Setting it to any other value will result in a 400 Bad Request error.max_tokens must be large enough to accommodate both the hidden thinking process and the final visible response (e.g., 16000).{
"model": "claude-opus-4-6",
"max_tokens": 16000,
"temperature": 1.0,
"thinking": {
"type": "adaptive"
},
"output_config": {
"effort": "high"
},
"messages": [
{
"role": "user",
"content": "Analyze this legacy architecture and design a zero-downtime migration plan to a microservices mesh."
}
]
}
thinking (object)type (string, Required): Must be set to "adaptive".
Note: Setting this to
"enabled"on Claude 4.6 Opus will trigger a deprecation warning or a 400 error depending on the gateway version.
output_config (object)effort (string, Optional): Controls the depth and duration of the thinking phase.
"low": Fast responses, minimized thinking for simpler sub-tasks."medium": Balanced speed and reasoning depth."high": Standard deep reasoning for complex engineering (Default)."max": Maximum reasoning capacity for highly experimental or complex architectural problems.Run models at scale with our fully managed GPU infrastructure, delivering enterprise-grade uptime at the industry's best rates.
