Anthropic launches cheaper AI model Sonnet 5.5
Anthropic has released Claude Sonnet 5.5, the second model in the Claude 5.5 series, positioned as a complementary workhorse to the more powerful Opus 5.5 for well-defined daily tasks like coding, bug fixing, and document creation. Priced unchanged at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, it runs over 30% faster than Sonnet 5 and costs up to 30% less per task due to reduced token usage. While not advancing frontier capabilities, it shows near-Opus performance on several benchmarks, including GDPval-AA v2.1 and OSWorld 2.1, and outperforms Opus 5.5 on agentic coding tasks, achieving 70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 versus 10.3% for Sonnet 5. Due to significant cyber capabilities, it is the first Sonnet model subject to the same cybersecurity safeguards as Opus 5. Available via Claude, AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, an updated Haiku model is expected in the coming weeks.
- •Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5.5 on September 28, 2026, priced at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.
- •Sonnet 5.5 is over 30% faster than Sonnet 5, and cost per task can drop by up to 30% due to reduced token usage.
- •The model outperforms Opus 5.5 on agentic coding benchmarks and reaches 70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, versus 10.3% for Sonnet 5.
