Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5: Cheaper, Powerful AI Model

Anthropic has released a new AI model called Claude Sonnet 5, designed to balance capability with cost. This model performs similarly to the more powerful Opus 4.8 but comes at a lower price. It costs two dollars per million input tokens and ten dollars per million output tokens when used through Claude Code. Sonnet 5 can create plans, use tools like browsers and terminals, and operate autonomously. This level of performance previously required larger and more expensive models. It is now the default model for Claude's free and Pro tiers, and also available to Max, Team, and Enterprise subscribers. However, Anthropic also states that Sonnet 5 shows substantially poorer performance on cybersecurity tasks compared to Opus 4.8 and Mythos 5. This matters because it highlights the ongoing tension between AI capabilities and safety concerns, especially given recent federal government interactions.