Anthropic's Opus 5.5: 40% Cheaper, Now the Default

Anthropic's Opus 5.5: 40% Cheaper, Now the Default

Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 on September 22, the first model in a new 5.5 family, claiming Fable 5.1-level performance on most tasks at 40% lower running cost than Opus 5 and over 30% faster. It became the default model in Claude Code and the Claude app the same day, with usage limits roughly 25% higher and a one-time reset for subscribers. The launch landed on the same calendar day as OpenAI's GPT-6 Sol and Luna release, making it the clearest head-to-head pricing moment between the two leading labs so far. Every performance and cost figure is Anthropic's own, measured against Anthropic's own prior model; independent evaluation is early, and some of the strongest third-party demos came from a commercial partnership. The episode separates what is observable — the model shipped, the default changed, the limits moved — from what remains a vendor claim, and names the specific evidence that would resolve the difference.

STORIES COVERED

Anthropic launches Claude Opus 5.5, matching Fable-tier intelligence at nearly half the price — @claudeai on X (official announcement) | Anthropic (official model page) | Claude Blog — what a task costs on Opus 5.5 | TechCrunch AI | Artificial Analysis (third-party benchmarks) | Ethan Mollick on X (independent hands-on testing)

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