Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 with lower prices for AI agents

In short: Anthropic has launched Claude Sonnet 5, a new version of its Claude AI that aims to run “agents” at a lower cost.

What happened

Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5, which the company describes as a more capable version of its mid-sized Claude model. Anthropic says it can plan tasks, use tools like a web browser and a computer terminal, and carry out longer jobs with less step by step help.

An “AI agent” is software that can take actions for you, not just answer questions (like a helpful assistant that can also click buttons and fill in forms). Tech companies including OpenAI and Google have been pushing in the same direction, with newer models designed to handle longer, more independent work.

Anthropic also focused on price. Sonnet 5 costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through August 31, then it changes to $3 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. Tokens are small chunks of text that models read and write (think of them like the word count on a bill).

Starting Tuesday, Sonnet 5 becomes the default model for Claude’s free and Pro plans, and it is available across subscriptions. Anthropic says Sonnet 5 performs close to its larger Opus 4.8 model on some tests, while being cheaper.

Why it matters

As more people and businesses try AI tools that can actually do tasks, cost and reliability start to matter as much as raw performance. Lower prices could make it easier for smaller teams to use agent-style features for everyday work, like drafting messages, updating records, or doing routine research.

Source: TechCrunch AI