Claude Sonnet 5.5 is 30% faster, up to 30% cheaper, and now runs free Claude
Anthropic's new mid-size model keeps Sonnet 5's price at $2 per million input tokens while using fewer tokens per task. The free claude.ai tier gets it.
Anthropic released a new AI helper called Claude Sonnet 5.5. It is faster and costs less for companies to run. People who use the free version of Claude get it too, so you can try it at no cost.
Hype check
Quieter than it deserves. This one matters more than the coverage suggests.
Our editorial opinion, based on the sources below. How we score
Your call: hype or real?
Real = it will matter in daily use. Hype = louder than it is. One vote, and it can’t be changed.
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Why it matters
Free Claude users get a stronger model, and developers get a cheaper way to run coding and office .
Worth a look: open claude.ai and see whether the free tier suits you.
The details
- Price is $2 per million input and $10 output, about half of Opus 5.5.
- Anthropic says it is 30%+ faster and costs up to 30% less for most work.
- Free chatting on claude.ai (web, iOS, Android) uses it.
- Available on Claude Platform, AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry as claude-sonnet-5-5.
- Aimed at coding, fixed-scope tasks, and documents, slides and spreadsheets.
Receipts
The company or lab said it. Primary source linked. Open the sources and check us.
- SourceAnthropicanthropic.com ↗
- ReportSimon Willisonsimonwillison.net ↗
- ReportDigital Todaydigitaltoday.co.kr ↗
Written with the help of AI tools and checked against the sources above. How we work
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