Claude Code Basics — Models & Money (lesson deck)

Claude Code Basics · models & money

Three engines, one tool

Claude Code can run on different models. Pick the right engine for the job.

🧠

Opus — the deep thinker most careful, priciest. For genuinely hard problems.

⚖️

Sonnet — the balanced default fast and smart. Great for most work.

⚡

Haiku — fast & cheap quick and light. For simple, repetitive tasks.

Roughly: Haiku is cheapest, Opus several times more, Sonnet in between. (Fable 5 sits above Opus for the very hardest jobs.)

Pick & go faster

1

Pick a model

The model menu in the panel — or /model sonnet (also opus, haiku) in the terminal.

2

Start cheap, level up

Default to Sonnet; reach for Opus only when it's genuinely hard.

3

Dial the effort

/effort sets how hard it thinks — low for fast & cheap, high (the default) for the balance, up to max for deep reasoning (more tokens).

4

Need speed?

/fast runs Opus faster — same smarts, higher cost (a terminal feature).

Thinking shows Claude's reasoning before it answers — on by default; toggle it with Option+T.

Stay in budget

Run /usage to see your session's cost and how much of your plan you've used.

📊

/usage — session cost + plan usage at a glance.

🧹

Stay cheap — clear context often, pick the right model, plan before big builds.

Right engine, eyes on the meter.

Plans (Pro / Max) differ by how much you can use — not which models you get.