Claude Opus 5.5: Anthropic’s new model, cheaper to run
Quick facts
- What happened
- Anthropic launches the Claude 5.5 family with Opus 5.5, which the company says performs like its most advanced model on most tasks and costs 40% less than Opus 5.
- What changes for you
- If you use Claude, you’ll see better answers on long documents and complex tasks. If not, it’s a sign that powerful models keep getting cheaper.
- Who can try it today
- Go to claude.ai with your account. Each model’s availability depends on your plan; check the model selector.
- Official source
- Introducing Claude Opus 5.5 (anuncio oficial)
- Verification date
- Related guide
- ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude: which suits you (euro prices, October 2026)
What it is
Claude Opus 5.5 is the first model in the Claude 5.5 family, introduced by Anthropic on 22 September 2026. According to the company, it performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 (its most advanced model, launched on 1 September) on most work and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5.
The full family
Then came Claude Sonnet 5.5 (28 September) and Claude Haiku 5.5 (7 October), the fastest and cheapest model, which we covered in the radar. Anthropic’s official documentation recommends starting with Opus 5.5 for most uses and keeping Fable 5.1 for the most demanding reasoning.
Why it matters
Anthropic says that, at these levels, benchmark margins no longer reflect real-world differences well. For you, the practical point is that very capable models keep getting cheaper to use, which eventually shows up in plans and limits. Compare assistants in ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude.
Official links
- Introducing Claude Opus 5.5 (anuncio oficial)
- Notas de versión de Claude
- Resumen de modelos (documentación oficial)
Plain-language summary based on the official sources linked. Cognenza has no commercial relationship with the companies mentioned.