--- title: Choosing a Claude model and effort level in Claude Code description: Claude Code exposes two settings that affect output quality: model selection and effort level. Model selection swaps which set of frozen weights handles a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/choosing-a-claude-model-and-effort-level-in-claude-code-iymysmyba twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Choosing a Claude model and effort level in Claude Code | daily.dev og:description: Claude Code exposes two settings that affect output quality: model selection and effort level. Model selection swaps which set of frozen weights handles a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/choosing-a-claude-model-and-effort-level-in-claude-code-iymysmyba og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/IYmysMYbA.png og:image:alt: Choosing a Claude model and effort level in Claude Code og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Choosing a Claude model and effort level in Claude Code **[Claude](https://daily.dev/sources/claude)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Claude Code exposes two settings that affect output quality: model selection and effort level. Model selection swaps which set of frozen weights handles a request, determining capability ceiling and per-token cost. Effort level controls how much work Claude does per turn — including files read, tools used, verification steps, and thinking depth — not just thinking time. The guidance is to use default effort levels for most tasks and treat effort as a general preference rather than a per-task dial. When Claude fails, diagnose whether it lacked knowledge (switch to a larger model) or didn't try hard enough (raise effort level). Larger models like Fable excel at complex multi-step tasks and can outperform smaller models on total cost for hard tasks despite higher per-token pricing. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Claude Code wastes tokens on tasks that don't need them, but this one setting fixes it](https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-wastes-tokens-on-tasks-that-don-t-need-them-but-this-one-setting-fixes-it-jlojr0p1q) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#claude-code](https://daily.dev/tags/claude-code), [#ai-inference](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-inference), [#context-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/context-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/choosing-a-claude-model-and-effort-level-in-claude-code-iymysmyba) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Choosing a Claude model and effort level in Claude Code","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/choosing-a-claude-model-and-effort-level-in-claude-code-iymysmyba","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/choosing-a-claude-model-and-effort-level-in-claude-code-iymysmyba"},"datePublished":"2026-07-09T06:36:52.584Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T06:37:16.122Z","description":"Claude Code exposes two settings that affect output quality: model selection and effort level. 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