Anthropic Economic Index: Long-term Users Have 10% Higher Success Rate, Programming Tasks Shift to API

Anthropic released its third Economic Index Report based on Claude usage data from February 2026. Key finding: the learning curve effect—users with over 6 months of Claude experience have ~10% higher conversation success rate than new users, with a 4% gap remaining after controlling variables. Long-term users prefer collaborative iteration over simple commands, and their work-related usage is 7% higher.

Programming remains the top use case (35%) on Claude.ai but is rapidly shifting from web to API, driven by Claude Code's Agent architecture. Personal use increased from 35% to 42%, with tasks becoming more dispersed.

Paid users' model choices align with tasks: Opus usage is 4% higher for programming but 7% lower for tutoring. Emerging API workflows like enterprise sales outreach and automated trading operations doubled their share.