BERLIN — August 13, 2025 — Anthropic has taken a major step forward in its AI capabilities with the launch of a dramatically expanded context window and a new, on-demand memory feature for its Claude AI platform. These innovations mark a significant escalation in the competition among enterprise-focused AI systems from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google.
1. Claude Sonnet 4: Now with 1 Million Tokens of Context
Anthropic announced that its Sonnet 4 model now supports a context window of up to 1 million tokens—a substantial five-fold increase over the previous 200,000-token limit.Wikipedia+15VentureBeat+15Tom’s Guide+15WIRED+15Anthropic+15Neowin+15
- Use cases unlocked: Developers can now process entire codebases with over 75,000 lines of code, or analyze dozens of lengthy documents—like legal contracts or research papers—in a single request without losing context.Reddit+6Anthropic+69to5Mac+6
- Pricing adjustments: To accommodate the increased computational load, prompts exceeding 200K tokens will incur higher costs—$6 per million input tokens and $22.50 per million output tokens, up from the earlier $3 / $15 pricing tiers.Anthropic+2TechCrunch+2
- Customer highlights: Bolt.new and iGent AI report significant productivity gains, with Bolt.new highlighting improved project-scale coding workflows and iGent’s Maestro agent empowered by the expanded context window.Anthropic+1
- Competitive context: While Anthropic’s Sonnet 4 is among the first to push toward enterprise-scale context length, other players like OpenAI’s GPT‑4.1 achieved similar capabilities earlier in April.Reddit+8The Verge+8IT Pro+8
2. On-Demand Chat Recall: A Memory Feature with Privacy in Mind
Anthropic also released a new memory tool that enables Claude to retrieve and reference past conversations—but only when explicitly prompted by the user.
- This differs from ChatGPT’s persistent memory, which automatically builds and updates user profiles.
- Anthropic’s design places user privacy at the forefront: no background profiling, only manual, user-initiated access to prior chat content.Tom’s Guide+3The Verge+3Tom’s Guide+3
3. Why It Matters: Enterprise Momentum & Competitive Positioning
These upgrades are strategic for Anthropic’s positioning in the enterprise AI market:
| Feature | Benefit for Users | Competitive Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 1 M-token context | Enables handling entire codebases and large document sets in one request | Closes gap with OpenAI/Google on long-context capabilities |
| Memory feature | Supports continuity in multi-session projects without compromising privacy | Differentiates Claude with a privacy-first design |
- Developer workflows become significantly smoother—no need to chop large tasks into smaller chunks.
- Data-rich industries like legal, pharma, and software engineering stand to benefit most from these expanded capabilities.
- Privacy-conscious enterprises may lean toward Claude for its opt-in memory design.
4. Verdict: Claude Strengthens Its Role as a High-Context, Privacy-Aware AI Assistant
Anthropic’s upgrades to Claude Sonnet 4—particularly the 1-million-token context window—dramatically enhance its utility in handling large-scale, complex workflows like full codebase analysis or document consolidation. The memory tool adds usability for sustained, multi-session tasks while maintaining a privacy-first approach.
As Anthropic continues rolling out these features more broadly in the coming weeks, Claude further positions itself as a high-context, enterprise-oriented AI rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
