Anthropic has announced the release of a faster version of Claude Opus 4.6, offering a reported 2.5× speed improvement. The update is available as a research preview through Claude Code and Anthropic’s API, according to Rahul Patil, who shared the announcement publicly. The new fast mode has already been used internally by Anthropic’s teams and is described as one of the most impactful workflow improvements they’ve seen.
The faster version of Claude Opus 4.6 is designed for situations where both intelligence and speed matter. While it is more expensive to run and not intended for every task, it targets high-opportunity moments such as rapid prototyping, tight deadlines, and multi-day projects that need results immediately. For developers using Claude Code, fast mode can be enabled with a simple command, making it easy to switch when time pressure outweighs compute cost.
Anthropic is rolling out fast mode in research preview across several developer platforms, including Cursor, Figma, GitHub, v0 by Vercel, and others. This broader availability signals Anthropic’s focus on real-world builder workflows, where latency directly affects productivity. By offering a faster, more responsive version of Claude Opus alongside its standard modes, Anthropic is giving developers more control over the trade-off between speed, cost, and capability.
Linkedin Post of Rahul Patil