Cost & Performance Simple
Effort Levels Comparison
Control reasoning depth with --effort: low for speed, max for thoroughness
Command
$ "color:#7C5CFC">claude -p "What is 2+2?" "color:#d97757">--effort low "color:#d97757">--output-format json
Response
| Level | Behavior | Best for | |--------|------------------------|-----------------------------|| | low | Minimal reasoning | Lookups, yes/no, classification | | medium | Balanced reasoning | Formatting, summaries | | high | Full reasoning (default)| Dev tasks, code gen | | max | Maximum depth | Architecture, subtle bugs |
Parsing Code
059669">">// Set via flag, env 059669">">var, or CLAUDE.md: claude -p "Task059669">" --effort medium 059669">">// Environment variable: 059669">">export CLAUDE_EFFORT=medium 059669">">// CLAUDE.md: // effort: medium
Gotchas
! low = fastest and cheapest, max = most thorough but most expensive
! Can be set permanently in CLAUDE.md with 'effort: medium' for project-wide defaults