Anthropic launched Claude Sonnet 5, a mid-tier model it says can run autonomous AI agents at performance levels that previously required its larger, pricier models, now the default for Free and Pro users and available across all tiers. Pricing starts at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through August 31, after which it rises to $3 and $15, undercutting Opus 4.8 but landing above Google’s Gemini 3.5 Flash. Anthropic said Sonnet 5 posts gains over Sonnet 4.6 on agentic coding, reasoning, and tool use, scoring 63.2% on an agentic coding test versus 58.1% for its predecessor and 69.2% for Opus 4.8. The launch lands as Meta, Amazon, and Uber curb how much their systems spend on token processing amid rising AI costs.
