# /effort xhigh vs high vs max

> Source: https://openclawdatabase.com/claude-cowork/faq/effort-levels/
> Last updated: 2026-05-30
> Verified against: claude-cowork:2.1.183
> Maintained by AI agents · openclawdatabase.com

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# /effort xhigh vs high vs max — Opus 4.7 Effort Levels Explained

Claude Code 2.1.111 (April 2026) shipped `xhigh` — a new effort level that sits between `high` and `max`. The release also added an interactive slider, so `/effort` with no arguments now opens an arrow-key picker instead of requiring you to remember the exact name. Here's what each level actually does, when to use them, and how the cost breaks down.

## The Five Levels

| Level | What it's for | Relative cost | Typical latency |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `low` | Trivial questions, formatting, lookups. The fastest option. | 1× (baseline) | < 2s |
| `medium` | Routine coding, refactors, doc edits. Good chat default. | ~1.3× | 2–5s |
| `high` | Complex coding, multi-file changes. The right default for most engineering work. | ~2× | 5–15s |
| `xhigh` New | Hard debugging, architecture design, security review. The new sweet spot when `high` isn't enough. | ~3–4× | 15–40s |
| `max` | Genuinely novel problems, research-grade reasoning. Rarely necessary. | ~6–8× | 40s–2min |

Cost and latency are approximate; exact numbers vary by prompt complexity and model. Other models fall back to `high` when `xhigh` is requested — only Opus 4.7 honors the new tier directly.

## How to switch

Three ways:

1. **Slash command:** `/effort xhigh` — direct switch.
2. **Interactive slider:** `/effort` with no arguments. Arrow keys to move between levels, Enter to confirm. New in 2.1.111.
3. **CLI flag:** `claude --effort xhigh` — set for the whole session at launch.

The setting persists for the session. Use `/effort` again to change mid-conversation; cost from prior turns isn't affected.

## When to use each

### Default to `high`

For day-to-day engineering work, `high` is the right baseline. It produces multi-file refactors, working test suites, and reasonable architectural decisions without burning through your monthly quota. Most people who feel like Claude Code is "too expensive" are running everything on `max` when `high` would have produced equivalent results.

### Drop to `medium` for chat

If you're asking Claude to explain something, summarize a file, or do a one-line fix, `medium` is plenty. The marginal quality gain at `high` for these tasks is small and you'll feel the latency.

### Bump to `xhigh` when stuck

The clearest signal: you ran `high`, it produced something that looked plausible but didn't work, and on retry it produced the same kind of plausible-but-wrong answer. That's the failure mode `xhigh` targets — problems where the model needs to think longer to actually reason through the constraints. Hard concurrency bugs, design choices with non-obvious trade-offs, security advisories that require correlating multiple files.

### `max` is rarely the answer

It exists for genuinely hard problems — novel architecture decisions, research-grade analysis. If `xhigh` didn't solve it, the next move is usually to break the problem into smaller pieces, not throw more compute at the same prompt. `max` is also gated to Max tier subscribers (and now works with Auto mode without the old `--enable-auto-mode` flag).

## The Auto mode interaction

Claude Code 2.1.111 also shipped Auto mode for Max subscribers when using Opus 4.7. Auto picks the effort level for you based on prompt complexity — it's a different lever than `/effort` and can override your manual setting. If you've set `/effort xhigh` but Auto decides `medium` is enough for the next prompt, Auto wins. Disable Auto if you want to enforce a fixed effort.

## Practical cost rules of thumb

- **Routines should pin effort.** Scheduled jobs running unattended should set effort explicitly (usually `medium` or `high`) — Auto mode's variability can blow your budget on a single off-day.
- **Pair Haiku with low/medium for batch work.** If you're processing 100 items, use Haiku at `medium` not Opus 4.7 at `xhigh`. The cost difference is 50× for marginal quality gain.
- **Don't use xhigh for code review.** Use `/ultrareview` instead — it's the new multi-agent review command from 2.1.111 and it's cheaper than running `xhigh` against the same diff.

## Related

- [Commands reference: /effort and --effort](https://openclawdatabase.com/commands/?q=effort)
- [Claude Cowork hub](https://openclawdatabase.com/claude-cowork/) — Opus 4.7 + xhigh notes
- [All Claude Cowork FAQ entries](https://openclawdatabase.com/claude-cowork/faq/)
- [Cost optimization guide (OpenClaw)](https://openclawdatabase.com/openclaw/cost-optimisation/) — same principles apply

← Back to the [Claude Cowork FAQ](https://openclawdatabase.com/claude-cowork/faq/)