Claude API Retains Thinking Blocks by Default; Developers Urge OpenAI to Follow Suit

steipete · x · 2026-07-31

Developer @DrBeavisAI highlights that Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 API retains prior thinking blocks by default, while OpenAI's GPT-5.6 uses a compaction strategy. He cites Claude API docs explaining thinking blocks: models reason before answering, generating thinking content blocks that improve performance on complex tasks like math and coding. Thinking blocks incur extra cost but are retained by default.

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