Lesson 1335 of 1455
Claude Sonnet vs Opus: when to spend the extra money
Opus is smarter on hard tasks — but Sonnet is fast and cheap and right for 80% of your work.
Builders · Model Families · ~4 min read
The big idea
Use Sonnet by default; reach for Opus on long reasoning, complex code, or when Sonnet keeps getting it wrong.
Some examples
- Sonnet: chat, refactors, drafts, summarization.
- Opus: long agents, gnarly debugging, multi-step reasoning.
- Haiku: bulk classification, super-cheap tasks.
Try it!
Take the same hard prompt and run it on Sonnet and Opus. Compare quality and cost.
Understanding "Claude Sonnet vs Opus: when to spend the extra money" in practice: Understanding AI in this area gives you a real advantage in how you work and think. Opus is smarter on hard tasks — but Sonnet is fast and cheap and right for 80% of your work — and knowing how to apply this gives you a concrete advantage.
- Apply the concepts from Claude Sonnet vs Opus: when to spend the extra money directly
- Identify where this fits into your current workflow
- Measure the before/after difference when you apply this
- Iterate and refine — first attempts rarely nail it
- 1Apply Claude Sonnet vs Opus: when to spend the extra money in a live project this week
- 2Write a short summary of what you'd do differently after learning this
- 3Share one insight with a colleague
End-of-lesson quiz
Check what stuck
8 questions · Score saves to your progress.
Lesson help
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