UseAI glossary
Effort level (reasoning effort)
The setting that determines how much a reasoning model is allowed to "think" before answering, usually in a few tiers (low, medium, high, maximum). More effort improves results on hard problems, but consumes more tokens and adds delay. Published scores are often obtained at maximum effort, which is rarely the default setting.
In other words
The time you allow yourself before answering: pointless for telling the time, precious for a tough maths problem, and always counted.
Alyriaz articles that mention it
- Claude Haiku 5.5: ten times cheaper than its predecessor
Anthropic launches Claude Haiku 5.5, ten times cheaper than Haiku 4.5 for most requests, at the price of GPT-6 Luna. What it is really worth.
- When a newer model scores worse than the one it replaces
A new generation of model can post lower scores than the previous one on certain tests. We explain why, what that reveals about design trade-offs, and how to choose accordingly.
- The model rankings as of 23 September 2026
State of the model landscape as of 23 September 2026: who leads on what, at what price, and how to read leaderboards that have become hard to compare.
- GPT-6 Sol and Luna: prices halved, the same evening as Opus 5.5
OpenAI has released GPT-6 Sol and Luna with prices halved, just hours after Claude Opus 5.5. We analyse the figures, the tests where the new model regresses, and what this convergence means.
- What is a model's "effort level"? The setting that changes everything and that nobody looks at
Recent models offer a reasoning-effort setting that profoundly changes their outputs and cost. Here’s what this parameter does, why comparisons depend on it, and how to tune it.
- What is a "reasoning model"? These AIs that take the time to think before answering
Deep Think mode, reasoning effort, sub-agents: recent models no longer respond immediately, they think first. We explain what a reasoning model is, what actually happens during that pause, why it improves answers, and why it sends the bill through the roof.