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Claude just gave you a volume knob for its brain.
With Opus 5, there's a new setting: low, medium, or high effort.
Turn it up and Claude thinks longer and harder before answering. Turn it down and it answers fast and cheap.
Most people will never touch it. You should, because it's the difference between a quick reply and real thinking.
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Okay, what the dial actually does.
Every answer is a trade. More thinking gives you a better result, but it costs a little more time and money. Less thinking is fast and cheap, but shallower.
The effort dial lets you choose, per task, instead of getting the same setting for everything.
Here's when to reach for each.
Low effort.
Quick, obvious jobs. Reword this. Summarize that. Fix the grammar. Draft a short reply. Anything where the answer isn't hard, just tedious. Fast is exactly what you want.
Medium effort.
Your everyday default. Most writing, planning, and research. Good thinking without the wait.
High effort.
The hard stuff. A tricky decision. A strategy with real tradeoffs. A knotty analysis. A piece of writing that has to be genuinely good. When it matters, let it think.
The rule of thumb is simple. Match the effort to the stakes.
Cranking a simple task to high just wastes time. Leaving a hard problem on low gives you a fast, shallow answer to a question that deserved more.
You'll find the setting on Opus 5 as it rolls out, near where you pick the model. If you don't see it yet, you can steer the same behavior with words.
Try this on your next hard task:
This one matters, so take your time and think it through carefully before you answer.
The task: [the hard thing].
Context: [everything you need.]
Reason it out step by step, weigh the options, and only then give me your answer plus what you're unsure about.That "take your time and think it through" line does real work. It tells Claude this isn't a quick one.
Here's the bigger point. A capable model is only as good as how you aim it. Same tool, wildly different results, depending on whether you asked for a quick take or real thought.
Knowing which dial to turn, and how to aim Claude at the work that matters, is the heart of Claude Mastery.
Step by step, no tech background needed.
Quick one.
What's a task you've been getting shallow answers on? Hit reply, I bet it's an effort problem.
Talk soon,
Zephyr
