Pick the right model

1. Tag 10,000 support emails by topic

2. Summarize one memo

3. Explain a budget variance for the accounting team

4. Fix a failing test in a large codebase

5. Run an overnight, multi-step research task

6. Hunt for security holes in critical software

Anthropic's own advice: most workloads start with Opus 5.5, then move to a cheaper model where it does the job.¹

Prices are list prices per million tokens from each company's pricing page, last verified Oct 26, 2026. Token counts per job and the "fit" verdicts are illustrative teaching judgments, not benchmarks.