Retired Jan 2026
Claude Opus 3
Anthropic's original flagship, released March 2024 as the most capable Claude 3 model, built for complex analysis and multi-step reasoning.
Key Specifications
- Context window
- 200K tokens
- Max output
- 4K tokens
- Knowledge cutoff
- Released
- Inputs
- Text, image
- Capabilities Show details
- Function calling Connect to external tools, APIs, and systems. Structured output Return responses in structured formats like JSON.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Claude Opus 3 good for?
Complex analysis and multi-step reasoning, taking text and images. It was the top of the Claude 3 generation.
When is Claude Opus 3 not a good fit?
Any new work: Anthropic retired it in January 2026. Closed weights, so no self-hosting, and its short maximum output and old knowledge kept it to brief answers about older material.
How does Claude Opus 3 compare with Claude Opus 4?
Anthropic says Claude Opus 4 adds extended thinking that can call tools, something Claude Opus 3 lacked, plus parallel tool use and memory files it keeps on disk when given file access. Same 200K-token context and text and image input. Claude Opus 3 came out 14 months earlier and has an older knowledge cutoff (August 2023 against March 2025) and a smaller max output (4K against 32K tokens).
Can I self-host Claude Opus 3?
No. Anthropic does not publish the weights; Claude Opus 3 is available only through hosted APIs.
More from Anthropic
| Model | Context | Input /1M | Output /1M |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Claude Fable 5.1
|
1M | $10.00 | $50.00 |
|
Claude Opus 5
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |
|
Claude Fable 5
|
1M | $10.00 | $50.00 |
|
Claude Opus 4.7
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |
|
Claude Opus 4.8
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |
|
Claude Sonnet 5
|
1M | $2.00 | $10.00 |
|
Claude Sonnet 4.6
|
1M | $3.00 | $15.00 |
|
Claude Opus 4.6
|
1M | $5.00 | $25.00 |