Claude Sonnet 4.6 is free to use right now — here are 5 things you should try first

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Anthropic just quietly handed everyone a significant upgrade with the recent launch of Claude Sonnet 4.6. The company's most capable mid-tier AI model to date is now the default experience for free users on claude.ai.

Users can try it without a subscription or credit card, just log in and give it a go. That matters more than it might sound since Sonnet 4.6 delivers performance that was previously only available from Opus-class models — Anthropic's most expensive, most powerful tier. But now, at a price point five times lower, users get an enterprise-level model for free.

Sonnet 4.6 offers file creation, connectors, skills and context compaction, which is a significant jump in what you can do without paying for anything.

1. Throw a huge document at it

Person typing on laptop keyboard — (Image credit: Unsplash)

When I say Claude can handle just about anything you throw at it, I'm not kidding. Most AI tools choke when you feed them something long — a full research report, a lengthy contract, an entire book chapter — but Claude Sonnet 4.6 handles this better than almost anything else available right now.

Because of the updated memory feature, it is now a powerhouse for doing things like editing your next novel or breaking down huge research documents.

Sonnet 4.6 features a 1 million token context window, which in practical terms means you can paste in an entire novel (I have!), a full codebase or months of meeting notes and ask Claude to analyze, summarize or find patterns across all of it without losing track.

Try it with something you've been putting off because it felt too large to tackle — a lengthy PDF report, a wall of legal text or a stack of research papers. Ask Claude to pull out the key arguments, flag contradictions or build you a summary you can actually share with colleagues. The results are genuinely impressive.

2. Ask it to write — and then improve — your code

Claude Code image on laptop — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

If you write code at all, this is where Sonnet 4.6 earns its reputation. Scratch that, even if you don't write code, this is the best place to start. In Claude Code testing, users preferred Sonnet 4.6 over its predecessor roughly 70% of the time, and many even preferred it to Opus 4.5 — Anthropic's flagship model from just a few months ago.

What sets it apart isn't just that it writes code — it's how it handles the messy, real-world part of coding. This is what developers typically handle, but Claude reads existing codebases before making changes, avoids duplicating logic unnecessarily and is less likely to overcomplicate simple problems. For those new to coding, it's the fastest way to feel like a genuine coder in just a few hours of playing around.

Even if you're not a developer, Claude can write a Python script to rename files, build a spreadsheet formula or automate a repetitive task you do every week. Start with something small and specific — "write me a script that goes through a folder and renames every file with today's date" — and build from there.

3. Use it to navigate software you find annoying

claude art — (Image credit: Anthropic/Claude)

This one is newer and genuinely feels like a glimpse of the future, especially for anyone struggling with software. Sonnet 4.6 scored 72.5% on the OSWorld-Verified benchmark — nearly a fivefold improvement from where Anthropic's computer use capability stood just 16 months ago.

This means that Claude can now look at your screen and interact with it the way a person would — clicking, typing, scrolling, navigating menus. It can navigate, interact and complete tasks across any browser-based surface, including tools with no API, legacy systems, and sites you're already logged into.

A good first experiment is to ask Claude to help you navigate a form-heavy government website, pull data from a clunky internal tool at work or walk through a multi-step process in your browser while you watch. It won't always be perfect, but when it works, it's startling how capable it feels.

4. Give it your hardest thinking task

One of the less-talked-about improvements in Sonnet 4.6 is something Anthropic calls adaptive thinking. Rather than always reasoning at full speed or always thinking slowly, the model now decides on its own when a problem is complex enough to warrant deeper step-by-step reasoning — and does it automatically.

This makes it particularly good at tasks that require genuine analysis rather than pattern-matching: evaluating a business decision with competing trade-offs, stress-testing an argument you're about to make, or working through a problem where the obvious answer might be wrong.

Try giving it something you're genuinely stuck on. Not "write me a summary" — but "I'm trying to decide between X and Y, here's everything I know, help me think through what I'm missing."

The quality of the back-and-forth reasoning is where Sonnet 4.6 most clearly differentiates itself from earlier models.

5. Build something with it in one sitting

Person coding on computer — (Image credit: Shutterstock)

In zero-shot app building experiments, Sonnet 4.6 ran up to three to four times longer without intervention than previous models, producing functional apps on a par with the Opus series. "Zero shot" refers to testing whether an AI can create a working application without being given examples or prior training specific to that task.

You don't need to be a developer to try this. Claude can build you a working HTML page, a simple interactive tool or a formatted report from scratch — and because it stays on task longer without needing you to re-explain what you want, you can actually get to something finished in a single session.

Start with something practical: a personal budget tracker, a reading list organizer, a simple quiz for a topic you're studying. Tell Claude what you want it to do, what it should look like, and who it's for — then let it run. You may be surprised how far it gets before you need to step in.

The takeaaway

Now's the time to take advantage of everything this model can do Go to claude.ai, create a free account, and Claude Sonnet 4.6 will be your default model automatically. You don't need to select it or change any settings — it's just there.

Keep in mind that free accounts do have usage limits that kick in during busy periods, so if you're planning to run a long session, earlier in the day tends to give you more room. And, even then, you're limited to a certain amount of queries, which reset after a few hours.

For heavier use, a Pro subscription unlocks significantly higher limits — but for anyone just getting started, the free tier is now more capable than it's ever been.

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Amanda Caswell is an award-winning journalist, bestselling YA author, and one of today’s leading voices in AI and technology. A celebrated contributor to various news outlets, her sharp insights and relatable storytelling have earned her a loyal readership. Amanda’s work has been recognized with prestigious honors, including outstanding contribution to media.

Known for her ability to bring clarity to even the most complex topics, Amanda seamlessly blends innovation and creativity, inspiring readers to embrace the power of AI and emerging technologies. As a certified prompt engineer, she continues to push the boundaries of how humans and AI can work together.

Beyond her journalism career, Amanda is a long-distance runner and mom of three. She lives in New Jersey.

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