Anthropic's new Claude Fast Mode trades your wallet for speed at a steep 6x markup

Anthropic just launched a new fast mode for Claude, and the pricing is steep: the "Fast Mode" for Opus 4.6 costs up to six times the standard rate. In return, Anthropic says the model responds 2.5 times faster at the same quality level. The mode is built for live debugging, rapid code iterations, and time-critical tasks. For longer autonomous runs, batch processing/CI-CD pipelines, and cost-sensitive workloads, Anthropic says you're better off sticking with standard mode.

Fast Mode can be toggled on in Claude Code with /fast and works across Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Figma, and Windsurf. There's a 50 percent introductory discount running until February 16. The mode isn't available through Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, or Microsoft Azure Foundry. Anthropic plans to expand API access down the line, interested developers can sign up for a waiting list.