ultracode and Effort Controls
Claude Opus 4.8 lets you dial reasoning effort up or down. Here's what high, xhigh, and max mean — and what ultracode adds on top.
The effort levels
Adjust reasoning effort in claude.ai and Claude Code to trade speed against depth.
| Level | In Claude Code | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| High (default) | /effort high |
The best overall balance of quality and user experience — the right default for everyday work. |
| Extra | /effort xhigh |
Recommended for difficult tasks and long-running asynchronous workflows. |
| Max | /effort max |
The highest reasoning level available, when you want maximum depth regardless of speed. |
Lower effort settings return answers faster and consume your rate limits more slowly.
What is ultracode?
A single switch that combines the highest practical effort with automatic workflow orchestration.
ultracode pairs xhigh reasoning effort with automatic dynamic-workflow orchestration. With it on, Claude plans a workflow for each substantial task instead of waiting for you to ask — a single request can become several workflows in a row (one to understand the code, one to change it, one to verify).
- •Turn it on with /effort ultracode; it applies to every task in the session.
- •It lasts the current session and resets when you start a new one.
- •Drop back to routine work with /effort high. Available only on models that support xhigh.
# turn on for the session
/effort ultracode
# back to routine work
/effort highWhich level should you use?
Match effort to the task — higher isn't always better, because it costs more time and tokens.
Routine work → high
Edits, reviews, quick fixes and Q&A. The default balance keeps responses fast and rate limits relaxed.
Hard problems → xhigh / max
Tricky debugging, architecture, or anything where a wrong answer is expensive. Spend the extra reasoning.
Long async runs → ultracode
Big, multi-stage tasks you'll let run in the background. ultracode adds workflow orchestration on top of xhigh.
ultracode and dynamic workflows
ultracode is the hands-off way to get dynamic workflows: instead of typing the workflow keyword each time, Claude decides when a task warrants one and orchestrates subagents automatically.
Read the dynamic workflows guide →Cheaper Fast Mode
Opus 4.8's Fast Mode is now three times cheaper than for previous models — $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output. Regular usage is unchanged at $5 / $25 per million.
Higher effort costs more — run it on the right access
xhigh, max, and ultracode reason longer and, with workflows, spawn many agents — so they use more tokens and draw down rate limits faster than routine work.
Sustained high-effort sessions with QCode
QCode provides higher-tier Claude Opus 4.8 access optimized for low latency in China, so you can keep xhigh and ultracode running on long tasks without juggling a foreign subscription, card, or phone number.
Run Opus 4.8 at full effort
Get Claude Code access through QCode and use high, xhigh, max, and ultracode with China-optimized latency.