AI tools
Claude Sonnet 5 launches at $2 per million tokens
The brief: Anthropic's cheapest way to run AI agents lands at near-Opus quality — and it deliberately can't hack.
The answer
Anthropic launched Claude Sonnet 5 on 30 June 2026 at an intro $2/$10 per million tokens.
What happened
Anthropic launched Claude Sonnet 5 on 30 June 2026, calling it its most agentic Sonnet yet — a model built to plan, use tools like browsers and terminals, and run autonomously at a level that months ago needed larger, pricier models. The API name is claude-sonnet-5. It is available on every plan and is now the default model for Free and Pro users, as well as Max, Team and Enterprise.
On performance, Anthropic says Sonnet 5 approaches Opus 4.8 for less money. It scored 63.2% on an agentic coding benchmark (Opus 4.8: 69.2%; Sonnet 4.6: 58.1%) and slightly outperforms Opus 4.8 on a knowledge-work benchmark. An adjustable effort level lets developers trade cost against performance.
The money
Pricing is the headline. Introductory rates run through 31 August 2026, then step up to standard.
| Model | Price in/out (per M tokens) | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sonnet 5 (intro) | $2 / $10 | Out now |
| Sonnet 5 (from 1 Sep) | $3 / $15 | Scheduled |
| Opus 4.8 | $5 / $25 | Out |
From today, Claude Sonnet 5 is available across all plans: it is the default model for Free and Pro plans, and is available to Max, Team, and Enterprise users.
The safety angle
Sonnet 5 shows a lower overall rate of undesirable behaviours than Sonnet 4.6 and is safer in agentic use. Notably, Anthropic made an explicit decision not to train it on cybersecurity tasks, leaving it substantially weaker at exploit development than Opus 4.8 — a pointed choice in the same month the US pulled Fable 5 and Mythos 5 over cyber capability.
The new model also demonstrates significant improvements over its predecessor Sonnet 4.6, released in February, on agentic performance like reasoning, tool use, software coding, and knowledge work, according to Anthropic.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Claude Sonnet 5 cost?
Is Claude Sonnet 5 better than Opus 4.8?
Can Claude Sonnet 5 be used for hacking?
Are these benchmark numbers independently verified?
Sources
- Introducing Claude Sonnet 5 — Anthropic, 30 June 2026
- Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 as a cheaper way to run agents — TechCrunch, 30 June 2026
- Anthropic Cuts AI Agent Costs With Claude Sonnet 5 Rollout — PYMNTS, 30 June 2026