Anthropic literally don't allow you to use the 1M context anymore on Sonnet and Opus 4.6 without it being billed as extra usage immediately.
replyI had 4.5 1M before that so they definitely made it worse.
OpenAI at least gives you the option of using your plan for it. Even if it uses it up more quickly.
Is that why it says rate limit all the time if you switch to a 1M model on Claude now? It kept giving me that so I switched to API account over the weekend for some vibe coding ran up a huuuuge API bill by mistake, whooops.
replyGood find, and that's too small a print for comfort.
replyIt's also in the linked article:
reply> GPT‑5.4 in Codex includes experimental support for the 1M context window. Developers can try this by configuring model_context_window and model_auto_compact_token_limit. Requests that exceed the standard 272K context window count against usage limits at 2x the normal rate.
Wow, that's diametrically the opposite point: the cost is *extra*, not free.
replyDiametrically opposite to tokens beyond 200K being literally free? As in, you only pay for the first 200K tokens and the remaining 800K cost $0.00?
replyI don't think that's a fair reading of the original post at all, obviously what they meant by "no cost" was "no increase in the cost".
Which, Claude has the same deal. You can get a 1M context window, but it's gonna cost ya. If you run /model in claude code, you get:
reply Switch between Claude models. Applies to this session and future Claude Code sessions. For other/previous model names, specify with --model.
1. Default (recommended) Opus 4.6 · Most capable for complex work
2. Opus (1M context) Opus 4.6 with 1M context · Billed as extra usage · $10/$37.50 per Mtok
3. Sonnet Sonnet 4.6 · Best for everyday tasks
4. Sonnet (1M context) Sonnet 4.6 with 1M context · Billed as extra usage · $6/$22.50 per Mtok
5. Haiku Haiku 4.5 · Fastest for quick answers