Claude’s February 2026 Update: What’s New and Why It Matters for Your Work

Anthropic just dropped some serious upgrades to Claude, and honestly, the shift feels like moving from a helpful assistant to something that can actually handle your whole project without constant hand-holding. We’re talking Claude Sonnet 4.6 as your new default, Claude Opus 4.6 stepping up as the smartest model available, and a bunch of features that make these models feel less like tools you supervise and more like collaborators you trust. If you’ve been using Claude for work, this is worth paying attention to.

The Main Players: Sonnet 4.6 and Opus 4.6

Two models got the upgrade treatment. Sonnet 4.6 is now the default model on Claude.ai and Claude Cowork for free and Pro users, keeping the same pricing as before (starting at $3 per million tokens). Opus 4.6 is the new smartest model, replacing Opus 4.5 from November 2025.

Here’s what you need to know about the improvements:

Early access users actually preferred Sonnet 4.6 to Opus 4.5, which says something about how capable the mid-tier model has become. Box’s CEO tested Sonnet 4.6 on real enterprise work like generating reports, doing due diligence, and expert analysis across multiple documents. They saw a 15% jump in performance and accuracy.

Computer Use Is No Longer Experimental

This is the feature that’s getting the most buzz, and for good reason.

Claude can now see your screen, click a mouse, and type on a keyboard the way a person would. No special APIs. No purpose-built connectors. It’s not quite at human level yet, but it’s getting there fast.

What does this actually mean for you?

• Developers: You can ask Claude to navigate tools, fill in forms, or interact with systems that don’t have API access.
• Operations teams: Automating repetitive clicks across your existing software without building custom integrations.
• Customer support: Claude can walk through your help documentation or ticketing system to find answers.
• Marketers: Setting up campaigns or pulling data from dashboards without switching between tabs yourself.

Adaptive Thinking: The Model Knows When to Think Harder

Previously, you either turned extended thinking on or off. Binary. Now Claude can read the room.

Adaptive thinking means the model decides when deeper reasoning is needed based on what you’re asking. At the default effort level (high), it uses extended thinking when useful. You can also adjust effort to low, medium, or max if you want more control.

This matters because extended thinking costs more tokens and takes longer. Now you’re not paying for heavy reasoning on simple questions, and the model doesn’t overthink straightforward tasks.

Context Compaction: Longer Conversations Without Hitting the Wall

You know that moment when you’re deep in a conversation with Claude and it says you’re approaching your context limit? Context compaction solves this.

The model automatically summarises older parts of your conversation and replaces them, keeping the relevant bits in focus. This is massive for long-running projects, agentic tasks, or anyone working on something over several days.

Real example: A researcher building a literature review over a week without losing earlier findings. A developer debugging a codebase over multiple sessions without losing context from day one.

Better Code Execution and Tool Use on the API

If you’re building with Claude’s API, the platform just got smarter about handling information.

• Web search and fetch tools now automatically write and execute code to filter search results. You get relevant content in context, fewer wasted tokens, and cleaner responses.
• Code execution, memory, programmatic tool calling, and tool search are now generally available (not beta anymore).
• Tool use examples are available to help developers integrate Claude into their workflows.

1M Token Context Window (In Beta)

Both Sonnet 4.6 and Opus 4.6 support a 1 million token context window in beta. That’s roughly 750,000 words or about 2,500 pages of text in a single conversation.

This is useful for:

• Dumping entire codebases and asking Claude to review or refactor.
• Uploading full research papers, financial reports, or documentation without summarising first.
• Long-form content projects where you need the entire previous work in context.

Keep in mind this is still in beta, so it might behave differently as it’s refined.

Pricing Stays the Same (For Now)

Sonnet 4.6 pricing is identical to Sonnet 4.5: $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens. You get the upgrade for free if you’re on a Pro or Free plan.

No surprise price increases, which is nice.

What People Are Actually Using Claude For

Quick reality check on how people are using Claude right now:

• 52% of Claude tasks are augmentation work (you and Claude working together to refine results).
• 45% are automation (you set it and let it run).
• 15% are educational (coursework, lesson planning).
• 13% are office and administrative support (automation of repetitive admin tasks).

Claude completes college-level tasks about 12 times faster than humans, which gives you a sense of where the efficiency gains are coming from.

How to Actually Use This

If you’re already using Claude, here’s where to start:

• Upgrade to Sonnet 4.6 if you haven’t already (it’s now the default).
• Try computer use if you’re automating workflows that involve clicking through interfaces.
• Test adaptive thinking on your existing API calls to see if you save tokens on routine tasks.
• Use context compaction if you’re running long-running agentic tasks.

If you’re on an older Claude version or using competitors, switching to Sonnet 4.6 is worth testing. The consistency improvements and computer use capability alone change what’s possible.

Ready to try these updates yourself? Head over to claude.ai and explore what the new models can do for your actual work. Try building something that uses computer use or running a longer conversation with context compaction. Let us know what works for you, or what breaks. Feedback like that shapes what gets built next.