The right Claude model, without hitting your limit.

Your answers write your personal cheat sheet. They stay in your browser and nobody else sees them.

Bigger models think harder and use your limit faster. Smaller ones are quicker and go further.

1. Haiku 4.5: the fastest. Good for quick, simple jobs.
2. Sonnet 5.5: fast and strong. Anthropic says it’s best at well-scoped everyday tasks and polished documents, slides and spreadsheets.
3. Opus 5.5: for complex work that needs careful judgement and long sessions. It puts the most important information first.
4. Fable 5.1: Anthropic’s most capable model open to everyone. For deep research and analysis carried through to a finished document, spreadsheet or deck.

Which ones you can use

1. Free: Sonnet and Haiku.
2. Pro: Sonnet, Haiku and Opus. Fable runs on usage credits, which you pay for on top of your plan.
3. Max: all four. You can spend up to half of your weekly limit on Fable.
4. Team and Enterprise: it depends on your seat and what your admin has switched on.

Most of your work doesn’t need the biggest model. Save it for the jobs that do, and your limit lasts longer.

1. Quick jobs (rewording a sentence, a short reply, tidying notes): Haiku 4.5, or Sonnet 5.5 on Low effort.
2. Everyday work (client emails, documents, slides, spreadsheets, summarising a call): Sonnet 5.5.
3. Big thinking (planning a launch, a tricky decision, a long report, a session that runs all afternoon): Opus 5.5.
4. The hardest work (deep research, or analysis you want turned into a finished document, spreadsheet or deck): Fable 5.1.

How to switch

1. Click the model name next to the send button.
2. Pick a model. Click More models if the one you want isn’t there.
3. You can switch at any point in a chat. It applies from Claude’s next reply.

Effort is how hard Claude thinks before it answers. Higher effort gives more thorough answers and uses your limit faster.

1. Click the model name next to the send button.
2. Click Effort and choose a level. Each model’s recommended level is marked Default.
3. Low or Medium: routine jobs. They stretch your usage further.
4. High: the best balance of quality and speed.
5. Extra high and Max: the hardest problems. Expect slower answers.

How long the chat is, what you’ve attached, the tools switched on, the model and the effort level all count towards your limit.

1. Start a new chat when you change topic. Long chats use more of your limit with every message.
2. Put several questions in one message instead of sending them one at a time.
3. Read your message before you send it, so you don’t need a follow-up.
4. Keep files you use again and again in a project. Project files are stored so they count less each time you use them.
5. Only attach the files this chat needs. Big files use more.
6. Remove old files from your projects, and keep project instructions short.
7. Switch off connectors and web search when a chat doesn’t need them (click + then Connectors). They use a lot.

Moving out of a long chat

We're moving to a new chat to save my usage. Write me a handover note I can paste into it.

Include:
- What we're working on and what it's for
- Every decision we've made, in one line each
- The latest version of anything we wrote (in full if it's short, or the key parts if it's long)
- What's left to do, in order
- Anything I told you about my business that you'll need again

Keep it under 400 words. No commentary, just the note.

Sending several jobs at once

I've got three jobs for you. Do them in order and number your answers.

1. [first job]
2. [second job]
3. [third job]

Keep each answer as short as it can be while still being complete. Ask me anything you need before you start, all in one message.

You’ve got options besides waiting.

1. Wait for your five-hour limit to reset. Settings, then Usage shows you when.
2. Have a limit reset? Anthropic gives these out now and then. Go to Settings, then Usage, and click Reset for free in the Resets section. You can’t undo it once used.
3. On a paid plan, switch on usage credits to keep going and pay for what you use.
4. If you hit your limit most weeks, Max gives you 5 or 20 times the usage of Pro.

Tick what you want. Each file is written from your answers in step 1.

• My Claude cheat sheetWhich model for which job, how to switch, and your limit checklistmy-claude-cheat-sheet.md
• My two usage-saving promptsThe handover prompt and the batch prompt, ready to pastemy-usage-saving-prompts.md