Anthropic says users of Claude Opus 5.5 should stop adding prompts such as “think hard” or “think carefully.” The model, now the default on Pro, Max, Ultra and Team plans, reasons adaptively and can start faster when those phrases are omitted. Anthropic also recommends keeping the effort level at “Medium,” which it says matches the performance of the previous Opus 5 on “High.” Higher settings cost more and don’t always improve results.
Why it matters
Dropping outdated phrasing and using Medium effort lets subscribers get quicker answers from Claude Opus 5.5 without a drop in quality.
