Anthropic has just set the bar higher in the world of AI with its new release: Claude 4. The new models—Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4—are not mere incremental updates. They are a huge leap ahead in coding, sophisticated reasoning, and the future of smart AI agents. Here’s why they’re making waves among developers and companies.
Introducing the New Claude 4 Models
Claude Opus 4 is being talked about as the most powerful coding model out there today. It’s designed to execute long, intricate tasks and high-demand workflows that need focused attention over a period of time. Whether you’re working on enterprise-scale projects or dealing with ginormous codebases, Opus 4 can assist you in doing it smarter and quicker.
In conjunction with it is Claude Sonnet 4, expanding on the already robust performance of Sonnet 3.7. Sonnet 4 enhances coding and reasoning skills further, offering quicker, more precise answers. It’s perfect for internal tools and applications facing customers.
As per Anthropic, Opus 4 outperforms major benchmarks such as SWE-bench (72.5%) and Terminal-bench (43.2%) and becomes their strongest model yet. Sonnet 4 is close behind with a 72.7% on SWE-bench. Both models are available through the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI.
Major Features: Smarter Thinking, Tool Use, and Memory
One of the key advantages of Claude 4 is that it can leverage tools such as a web browser or file system to support its reasoning. Both Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 can alternate between thinking and using tools in order to give more context-sensitive responses. They can even use tools simultaneously and process instructions with greater accuracy.
When local files are made accessible to these models by developers, they are able to recall important details from one task to another. This new memory feature allows the models to write and save notes that enable them to keep context for extended periods, very helpful for projects taking hours or days.
Strength of Opus 4 in Coding
Claude Opus 4 is taking the developer community by storm as a serious coding companion. It’s been credited with tackling multi-step engineering work, taking days to complete, without sacrificing accuracy and context along the way. Cursor dubbed it the new standard for coding, especially for navigating and editing intricate codebases. Replit added that there were staggering gains in changing code in multiple files. Even Block described Opus 4 as the first model they’ve encountered that enhances code quality both in editing and debugging without sacrificing performance.
In a real-world example, Opus 4 was able to rewrite a complex open-source program independently in seven hours—something that would have otherwise needed continuous human supervision.
Sonnet 4: Balanced Power and Efficiency
Sonnet 4 is not as heavily weighted as Opus 4, but it still packs plenty of performance in a lighter package. GitHub is using it already in their Copilot coding agent, and partners such as Manus and iGent have seen significant increases in how the model performs on complicated instructions and goes through codebases more stably. It’s a good bet for users who want a solid, high-performance model that’s less taxing on resources.
A Better Experience for Developers
Anthropic is also making it easier for developers to bring Claude into their workflows. Claude Code is now generally available, with beta extensions for both VS Code and JetBrains. With these tools, Claude can suggest edits directly in your editor, making it easy to review and apply changes on the fly.
There is also a Claude Code SDK and GitHub integration (in beta) that enables the model to assist in correcting CI bugs and making smart code review recommendations.
Anthropic has also added four new API features: code execution, MCP connector, Files API, and prompt caching. These enhancements provide developers with more control and flexibility to create responsive and cost-effective AI tools.
Pricing and Availability
Claude Opus 4 is offered to Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise customers, and Sonnet 4 is offered to customers on the free tier as well. Pricing remains the same: Opus 4 costs $15 per million input tokens and $75 per million output tokens, and Sonnet 4 is $3 per million input and $15 per million output. Developers can also enjoy up to 90% and 50% savings on cost through prompt caching and batch processing, respectively.
Performance in the Real World
Both models are coming out on top in real-world tests. They dominate the rankings on SWE-bench Verified, a benchmark to measure how well AI models perform real software engineering tasks. Sourcegraph labeled Sonnet 4 as a major improvement for software development, writing that it remains on course longer, has a better understanding of issues, and writes cleaner code.
A Focus on Safety and Reliability
Anthropic has taken great efforts to ensure that Claude 4 is not only strong but also safe and reliable. The firm has collaborated with external experts to thoroughly test the models and made sure to pass stringent standards of safety, such as AI Safety Level 3 (ASL-3). In contrast to Sonnet 3.7, the new models are 65% less likely to cheat or abuse tools in difficult tasks.
Claude 4 is not merely brute performance—it’s a reimagining of the potential for AI to help with coding, reasoning, and collaboration. With more intelligent tools, deeper memory, and an expanding set of real-world use cases, Anthropic is raising the bar for what virtual intelligent collaborators can accomplish.