# Opus 4.6 vs opus 4.6 Max Pricing

**URL:** <https://forum.cursor.com/t/opus-4-6-vs-opus-4-6-max-pricing/154847>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** max-mode, anthropic\
**Created:** [March 15, 2026, 10:27pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/opus-4-6-vs-opus-4-6-max-pricing/154847 "2026-03-15T22:27:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BekaTchelidze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BekaTchelidze](https://forum.cursor.com/u/BekaTchelidze)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2026, 10:27pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/opus-4-6-vs-opus-4-6-max-pricing/154847/1 "2026-03-15T22:27:20Z")

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Hello, can someone help clarify? If the cost is 2× per million tokens, what’s the overall pricing difference between 4.6 and 4.6 Max? How should I think about this in the bigger picture?

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**Author:** ![mohitjain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/mohitjain/32/100229_2.png) [@mohitjain](https://forum.cursor.com/u/mohitjain)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 7:47am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/opus-4-6-vs-opus-4-6-max-pricing/154847/4 "2026-03-18T07:47:30Z")

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Hey there,

Good timing on this question – the pricing for Max mode just changed a couple of days before your post.

**Previously** , Anthropic charged a 2x premium when input tokens exceeded 200k (the base context window), and Cursor passed that through. So the “2x” you’re referencing was real.

Recently, Anthropic removed the long-context premium entirely for Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6. The full 1M context window is now available at standard pricing – no more 2x multiplier above 200k tokens. This has already been reflected in Cursor’s pricing.

**Current pricing difference (Opus 4.6 vs Opus 4.6 Max):**

- Standard Opus 4.6 is billed at the model’s base API rates per token

- Opus 4.6 Max applies a modest upcharge on those rates (see [Max Mode](https://cursor.com/help/ai-features/max-mode) for details)

- Max mode also generates **thinking tokens** (billed at the output token rate), which can increase per-request cost further – depending on how much the model “thinks”

**When Max mode is worth it:**

- You need the full 1M context window

- You want extended thinking for complex multi-step reasoning

- You’re using subagents with non-Composer models

If you’re doing simpler tasks that don’t need these features, standard mode is more cost-effective.

For full details: [Models & Pricing](https://cursor.com/docs/models-and-pricing) | [Max Mode](https://cursor.com/help/ai-features/max-mode)

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**Author:** ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/system/32/99069_2.png) [@system](https://forum.cursor.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 2:08pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/opus-4-6-vs-opus-4-6-max-pricing/154847/6 "2026-08-04T14:08:02Z")

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Closed on August 4, 2026, 2:08pm UTC

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