From an earlier video
This is material from an earlier video — Claude’s interface and features may have changed since. The idea and the approach still hold.
Claude’s extended thinking is a unique feature that lets you see the AI’s full reasoning when it solves complex tasks.
Unlike the vague “thinking process” in ChatGPT o3, Claude lays out every step of the analysis neatly, making its conclusions transparent and verifiable.
What is extended thinking in Claude?
🧠 How it works
Extended Thinking is a mode in which Claude:
- Shows the reasoning process — all the intermediate steps are visible
- Analyses the problem step by step — breaks a complex task into parts
- Justifies every decision — explains the “why” and the “how”
- Checks its conclusions — self-critically evaluates the result
📊 Visual representation
When extended thinking is on, Claude’s answer looks like this:
🤔 Claude's reasoning:
├── Problem analysis
│ ├── Identifying the key factors
│ ├── Assessing the task's complexity
│ └── Choosing a suitable method
├── Step-by-step solution
│ ├── Step 1: [detailed explanation]
│ ├── Step 2: [justification of the choice]
│ └── Step 3: [checking the result]
└── Final conclusions
├── The main answer
├── Alternative options
└── Recommendations for next steps
💡 Final answer:
[A structured answer based on the analysis]
Claude vs ChatGPT o3: quality of thinking
🔍 ChatGPT o3 — a vague process
o3’s problems:
- Shows general musings without structure
- Hard to follow the logic of specific conclusions
- Lots of filler and uninformative phrases
- No clear link between the thinking and the result
Example of o3 thinking:
"Hmm, that's an interesting question… I need to think about different aspects…
Maybe I should consider the alternatives… Yes, that seems logical…"
✅ Claude — structured logic
Claude’s advantages:
- A clear, itemised structure of reasoning
- Concrete justification of every step
- A visible link between the analysis and the conclusions
- The ability to check any stage of the logic
Example of Claude thinking:
Task analysis:
1. Problem: the sales funnel needs optimising
2. Available data: conversions by stage, traffic sources
3. Constraints: $5000 budget, 2-month deadline
Choosing a methodology:
- Considered A/B testing: good for hypotheses
- Considered behaviour analytics: needed to find bottlenecks
- Chose a combined approach: analytics + testing
Prioritising actions:
1. Analyse current data (week 1)
2. Identify critical points (week 2)
3. Develop hypotheses (weeks 3-4)
4. A/B testing (weeks 5-8)
The triple mode: maximum effectiveness
🚀 A combination of three features
The triple mode is using all of these at once:
- 🧠 Extended thinking — visible reasoning
- 🔍 Research mode — searching for up-to-date information
- 📚 Explanatory style — an educational delivery of the material
🎯 What this combination gives you
For research:
- Thoroughness — a deep analysis of every aspect
- Currency — fresh information from the internet
- Clarity — an accessible explanation of complex concepts
- Verifiability — the logic behind all conclusions is visible
A practical example:
Request: “Analyse the prospects for the electric-vehicle market in Russia”
Result of the triple mode:
🤔 Reasoning:
To analyse the EV market we need to consider:
1. The current state of the market (statistics, players)
2. Government regulation and support
3. Infrastructure constraints (charging stations)
4. Consumer preferences and purchasing power
5. Technology trends and localisation of production
🔍 Research:
[Searching for the latest data on sales, government support, infrastructure]
📚 Explanation:
[A structured analysis with context, terms, forecasts]
Practical usage scenarios
💼 Business analysis
Task: developing a strategy for entering a new market
How extended thinking helps:
- Systematic analysis of risks and opportunities
- Justification of every strategic decision
- Visible logic for prioritising actions
- Alternative development scenarios
Example prompt:
Analyse the possibility of our IT company entering the Kazakhstan market.
Context:
- Current revenue: $2M a year
- Product: SaaS for warehouse management
- Team: 25 people
- Expansion budget: $200K
Turn on extended thinking, research mode and the Explanatory style.
🎓 Educational research
Task: studying a complex scientific topic
Advantages of the triple mode:
- Step-by-step explanation of complex concepts
- Up-to-date research and data
- Visible logic of how knowledge is built
- Connections between different aspects of the topic
Example for learning machine learning:
Explain how transformers work in neural networks.
Requirements:
- Turn on extended thinking (I want to see the logic of the explanation)
- Use research mode (find the latest papers)
- Explanatory style (I'm new to ML)
- Give practical examples of applications
🔬 Scientific research
Task: analysing contradictory data or hypotheses
How Claude helps:
- Systematic comparison of sources
- Spotting weak points in the argument
- Building logical chains of evidence
- Suggesting further research
🏠 Personal planning
Task: making important life decisions
Example — choosing a city to move to:
🤔 Claude's reasoning:
To choose a city we need to analyse:
1. Career opportunities in IT
2. Cost of living vs salary levels
3. Quality of life (climate, infrastructure, culture)
4. Personal preferences and family factors
I'll create a scoring system for each criterion…
🔍 Research:
[Searching for data on salaries, housing costs, city rankings]
📚 Analysis:
[A comparison table of cities with the scores justified]
Setup and optimisation
⚙️ How to turn on extended thinking
Method 1: In the settings
- Open Claude’s settings
- Find “Extended thinking”
- Switch it to “On”
Method 2: In the prompt
Turn on extended thinking and show your reasoning process when answering this question: [your question]
Method 3: Automatically
- Set it as the default in your profile settings
- Add it to a project’s system prompt
🎛️ Levels of detail
Basic level:
Turn on extended thinking
Medium level:
Show your thinking process: problem analysis, choice of approach, step-by-step solution
Advanced level:
Detailed thinking with every step justified:
- Analysis of context and constraints
- Consideration of alternative approaches
- Assessment of risks and probabilities
- Checking the logic of the conclusions
- Recommendations for improvement
When NOT to turn on extended thinking
❌ Unsuitable scenarios
Simple questions:
- “What’s 2+2?”
- “How are you?”
- “Translate the word ‘hello’”
Quick references:
- Facts and definitions
- Simple instructions
- Unit conversions
Creative tasks:
- Writing poems
- Generating ideas for brainstorming
- Light dialogue and small talk
⚡ When to choose speed
The Concise style is better for:
- Fact-checking
- Quick calculations
- Short translations
- Technical references
Combining with other features
📁 Extended thinking + Projects
Creating analytical projects:
- Create a project for a specific area (e.g. “Marketing analysis”)
- Turn on extended thinking as the default
- Add relevant documents and data
- Use it for regular research
🎨 Thinking + Artifacts
For creating complex documents:
- Analytical reports with visible logic
- Step-by-step guides with justification
- Research presentations
- Strategic plans with alternatives
👥 Thinking + Personal styles
Combining with expert styles:
Analyst + Thinking:
Style: Business analyst
Extended thinking: ON
Result: A detailed analysis with visible logic and justifications
Researcher + Thinking:
Style: Scientific researcher
Extended thinking: ON
Research mode: ON
Result: Thorough research with a verifiable methodology
Practical tips
💡 Optimising prompts
A structured request:
Task: [a clear description]
Context: [relevant information]
Constraints: [time, budget, technical]
Expected result: [specific deliverables]
Settings:
- Extended thinking: ON
- Research mode: [as needed]
- Style: [suited to the task]
🔄 Iterative improvement
The process of deepening the analysis:
- A basic analysis with extended thinking
- Spotting weak points in the logic
- Requesting more data through research mode
- An in-depth analysis of the contentious points
- Final conclusions taking every factor into account
📊 Checking the quality of the thinking
Evaluation criteria:
- Logic — do the conclusions follow from the premises?
- Completeness — were all the important aspects considered?
- Objectivity — were alternative viewpoints taken into account?
- Practicality — are the recommendations applicable in reality?
Advanced techniques
🎯 Meta-thinking
Analysing your own thinking process:
Analyse this problem, then evaluate the quality of your own analysis:
- Which aspects might have been missed?
- How well-founded are the conclusions?
- What additional data would improve the analysis?
- Are there alternative interpretations?
🔄 Dialectical thinking
Considering opposing viewpoints:
Analyse the question from two opposing positions:
1. Arguments "FOR" with justifications
2. Arguments "AGAINST" with evidence
3. Synthesis: finding a compromise solution
4. Show the thinking process at each stage
🧪 Experimental thinking
Testing hypotheses through thought experiments:
Formulate 3 hypotheses about this problem, then:
- Describe a thought experiment for each
- Predict the possible outcomes
- Assess the probability of confirmation
- Show the reasoning process for every step
Conclusion
Claude’s extended thinking is a powerful tool for deep analysis and making well-founded decisions. Combined with research mode and the educational style, it creates a triple mode of maximum effectiveness for:
✅ Business analysis — with visible logic and justifications ✅ Scientific research — with a verifiable methodology ✅ Educational tasks — with step-by-step knowledge building ✅ Personal planning — with a systematic analysis of options
Unlike the vague “thinking” of ChatGPT o3, Claude shows structured logic you can check, challenge and improve.
🎯 Recommendation: turn on extended thinking by default for all complex tasks — it noticeably improves the quality of the analysis and your trust in the conclusions.
📺 See it in action: Claude’s triple mode for research
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