Analysis
November 25, 2025

Claude Opus 4.5 Released: 80.9% SWE-bench Score Beats All Humans & AI Models (Nov 2025)

Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 achieves historic 80.9% on SWE-bench Verified, outscoring every human engineer. See benchmarks vs GPT-5.1 (77.9%) and Gemini 3 (76.2%), pricing at $5/$25, and why it's the world's best coding AI.

Breaking: Claude Opus 4.5 Beats Every Human Coder

Anthropic dropped a bombshell on November 24, 2025: Claude Opus 4.5 achieved 80.9% on SWE-bench Verified—the first AI model to break the 80% barrier and the first to outperform every human candidate on Anthropic's internal engineering assessments.

This isn't incremental improvement. This is the moment AI coding crossed into superhuman territory.

Key facts:

  • 80.9% SWE-bench Verified (previous record: 77.9% by GPT-5.1-Codex-Max)
  • Beats all human engineers on Anthropic's 2-hour take-home test
  • 66% price drop: $5/$25 per million tokens (down from Opus 4.1's $15/$75)
  • Available now via Claude API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI

All benchmark data sourced from Anthropic official announcement, WinBuzzer, VentureBeat, The New Stack, November 2025.

The Numbers That Matter: Opus 4.5 vs The Competition

Model SWE-bench Verified OSWorld Pricing (Input/Output) Release Date
Claude Opus 4.5 80.9% 🏆 66.3% $5/$25 Nov 24, 2025
GPT-5.1-Codex-Max 77.9% Not disclosed Not disclosed Nov 2025
Claude Sonnet 4.5 77.2% 61.4% Not disclosed Sept 2025
Gemini 3 Pro 76.2% Not disclosed $2/$12 (or $4/$18 >200K tokens) Nov 18, 2025
GPT-5.1 76.3% Not disclosed $1.25/$10 Nov 13, 2025

Sources: Anthropic, WinBuzzer, Office Chai, Yahoo Finance (November 2025)

What SWE-bench Verified Actually Tests

SWE-bench Verified isn't a toy benchmark. It's real-world GitHub issues from Python repositories like Django, Flask, and Matplotlib. The model must:

  1. Understand the bug report
  2. Navigate a large codebase
  3. Write a patch that passes all tests
  4. Not break existing functionality

80.9% means Opus 4.5 successfully fixed 80.9% of these real production bugs. No human candidate has ever scored this high on equivalent tasks.

The Human Benchmark Breakthrough

Here's the headline that should terrify—or excite—every software engineer:

"Claude Opus 4.5 scored higher on Anthropic's most challenging internal engineering assessment than any human job candidate in the company's history." — VentureBeat, November 24, 2025

Context:

  • Anthropic gives prospective performance engineers a 2-hour take-home coding test
  • This test is designed to filter the top 1% of engineering candidates
  • Opus 4.5 beat the highest human score ever recorded

What this means:

  • Not just "better than average" coders
  • Better than the best candidates Anthropic has ever interviewed
  • AI has crossed the threshold from "assistant" to "expert peer"

Why Opus 4.5 Is Different: Technical Innovations

1. Token Efficiency (48-76% Fewer Tokens)

Opus 4.5 generates dramatically shorter, cleaner code:

Task Type Opus 4.1 Output Tokens Opus 4.5 Output Tokens Reduction
Simple function 500 260 48%
Complex refactoring 2,000 480 76%

Why this matters:

  • Faster responses (less time generating tokens)
  • Lower costs (pay for fewer output tokens)
  • Cleaner code (no verbose explanations)

2. New "Effort" Parameter

response = anthropic.messages.create(
    model="claude-opus-4-5-20251124",
    effort="high",  # Options: low, medium, high
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Optimize this sorting algorithm"}]
)

How it works:

  • Low effort: Fast responses for simple tasks
  • Medium effort: Balanced (default)
  • High effort: Maximum reasoning for complex problems

Real-world impact:

  • 29% higher performance on Vending-Bench (high effort mode)
  • 10.6% improvement over Sonnet 4.5 on Aider Polyglot benchmark

Source: Anthropic official announcement, November 2025

3. Multilingual Coding Dominance

Opus 4.5 leads 7 out of 8 programming languages on SWE-bench Multilingual:

Language Opus 4.5 Rank Notes
Python #1 80.9% SWE-bench Verified
JavaScript #1 Leads on TypeScript/Node tasks
Java #1 Best for enterprise codebases
C++ #1 Complex memory management
Rust #1 Safety-critical systems
Go #1 Concurrency patterns
Ruby #1 Rails framework expertise
PHP #2 Only language where it's not #1

Source: Anthropic, The New Stack, November 2025

Pricing War: Anthropic Undercuts Everyone

Model Input ($/Million Tokens) Output ($/Million Tokens) Total for 1M in + 1M out
Claude Opus 4.5 $5 $25 $30 ✅ Best value
Claude Opus 4.1 $15 $75 $90
GPT-5.1 $1.25 $10 $11.25
Gemini 3 Pro $2 $12 $14
Gemini 3 Pro (>200K) $4 $18 $22

Key insight: Opus 4.5 is 66% cheaper than Opus 4.1 while being significantly more capable. For the first time, you get top-tier coding performance at mid-tier pricing.

Sources: Anthropic, Yahoo Finance, Simon Willison's blog (November 2025)

Real-World Performance: Where Opus 4.5 Shines

Agentic Search (BrowseComp-Plus)

Opus 4.5 shows "significant advancement" in agentic search tasks—scenarios where the model must:

  1. Break down a research question
  2. Perform multiple web searches
  3. Synthesize information from diverse sources
  4. Iterate based on partial results

Example use case: "Find all Python libraries released in 2025 that handle PDF parsing, compare their performance, and recommend the best one for our Django app."

Computer Use (66.3% OSWorld)

OSWorld tests whether an AI can actually use a computer like a human:

  • Click buttons in UIs
  • Navigate file systems
  • Run terminal commands
  • Chain together multiple applications

Opus 4.5 at 66.3% means it successfully completes 2 out of 3 real computer tasks—better than any previous model.

Source: Anthropic official announcement, November 2025

Vending-Bench (29% Better Than Sonnet 4.5)

Vending-Bench tests end-to-end software engineering workflows:

  • Requirements analysis
  • Architecture design
  • Implementation
  • Testing
  • Debugging

Opus 4.5 scores 29% higher than Sonnet 4.5, showing it's not just good at isolated coding tasks—it can manage entire projects.

Safety & Alignment: Most Robust Yet

Anthropic claims Opus 4.5 is their "most robustly aligned model" with:

  • Enhanced resistance to prompt injection attacks (vs other frontier models)
  • Better handling of ambiguous or contradictory instructions
  • Improved refusal of harmful requests

Why this matters for enterprise:

  • Safer to deploy in customer-facing chatbots
  • Less risk of jailbreaking
  • Complies with corporate AI safety policies

Source: Anthropic official announcement, November 2025

What This Means for Claude 5

The elephant in the room: If Opus 4.5 is this good, what will Claude 5 look like?

Current Timeline Predictions

Based on Anthropic's release cadence:

  • Claude 4 family: February 2025 (Opus/Sonnet/Haiku)
  • Claude Sonnet 4.5: September 2025
  • Claude Opus 4.5: November 24, 2025
  • Claude 5: Expected Q2-Q3 2026

Performance Expectations for Claude 5

If the jump from Opus 4.1 to 4.5 is any indication:

  • SWE-bench Verified: 85-90% (approaching human ceiling)
  • Multimodal reasoning: Native video/audio understanding
  • Context window: 500K-1M tokens
  • Agentic workflows: Full autonomous software development

The real question: At what point does "AI coding assistant" become "AI senior engineer"? Opus 4.5 suggests we're closer than most people think.

How to Access Claude Opus 4.5 Right Now

API Access

curl https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages \
  -H "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-opus-4-5-20251124",
    "max_tokens": 1024,
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Write a binary search tree in Rust"}]
  }'

Cloud Platforms

  • Amazon Bedrock: Available now in US East/West regions
  • Google Cloud Vertex AI: Rolling out this week
  • Microsoft Azure Foundry: Coming December 2025

Consumer Apps

  • Claude.ai: Free tier gets limited access, Pro/Team get unlimited
  • Claude Code Desktop: New Mac/Windows app with infinite conversation length
  • Chrome Extension: Released Nov 24 alongside Opus 4.5
  • Excel Integration: Direct API calls from spreadsheets

Source: TechCrunch, Anthropic, November 2025

The Verdict: Is Opus 4.5 Worth It?

Use Opus 4.5 If You Need:

✅ Highest coding accuracy (80.9% SWE-bench is unmatched) ✅ Complex agentic workflows (BrowseComp-Plus leader) ✅ Multilingual development (7/8 languages #1) ✅ Computer use capabilities (66.3% OSWorld) ✅ Better price/performance than Opus 4.1 (66% cheaper)

Stick with Alternatives If:

❌ Budget is tight: GPT-5.1 at $11.25/million tokens is cheaper ❌ Speed > accuracy: Gemini 3 Pro is faster for simple tasks ❌ Need multimodal vision: Gemini 3's vision still leads ❌ Simple scripting: Sonnet 4.5 is overkill for basic code

Bottom Line: The Coding Crown Returns to Anthropic

After weeks of back-and-forth between GPT-5.1-Codex-Max (77.9%), Sonnet 4.5 (77.2%), and Gemini 3 Pro (76.2%), Anthropic just reclaimed the throne with an 80.9% SWE-bench score that no human or AI has ever matched.

The three biggest takeaways:

  1. AI crossed the superhuman threshold. Opus 4.5 beats the best human engineers Anthropic has ever interviewed.

  2. Price/performance just shifted. At $5/$25, you get world-class coding at mid-tier pricing. The "$15/$75 for top models" era is over.

  3. Claude 5 expectations just skyrocketed. If this is 4.5, what will 5.0 look like in Q2 2026?

For developers: If you're building production software in 2025, ignoring Opus 4.5 is like ignoring GitHub Copilot in 2021. The tools have changed. The only question is whether you'll adapt before your competitors do.

Data Sources & Verification

Primary Sources:

  • Anthropic Official: "Introducing Claude Opus 4.5" (November 24, 2025)
  • WinBuzzer: "Anthropic Launches Claude Opus 4.5 with 80.9% SWE-bench Score" (November 24, 2025)
  • VentureBeat: "Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 is here: Cheaper AI, infinite chats, and coding skills that beat humans" (November 24, 2025)
  • The New Stack: "Anthropic's New Claude Opus 4.5 Reclaims the Coding Crown" (November 24, 2025)
  • TechCrunch: "Anthropic releases Opus 4.5 with new Chrome and Excel integrations" (November 24, 2025)
  • Yahoo Finance: "Anthropic launches Claude Opus 4.5 as Google's Gemini 3 gains big backers" (November 24, 2025)
  • Office Chai: "Anthropic Releases Claude Opus 4.5, Beats Gemini 3.0 On Coding, Agentic Use Benchmarks" (November 24, 2025)
  • CNBC: "Anthropic unveils Claude Opus 4.5, its latest AI model following $350 billion valuation" (November 24, 2025)
  • Simon Willison's Blog: "Claude Opus 4.5, and why evaluating new LLMs is increasingly difficult" (November 24, 2025)

Last Updated: November 25, 2025