Anthropic has released Claude Opus 5.5, a new artificial intelligence model designed to handle complex work while running faster and costing significantly less than its predecessor.
The model is the first release in Anthropic’s new Claude 5.5 family. Anthropic says Opus 5.5 performs at about the same level as its higher-end Claude Fable 5.1 on most tasks while costing about 40% less to run than Claude Opus 5. It also produces output more than 30% faster.
Anthropic is positioning the model for demanding work including coding, research, data analysis and tasks in which AI agents complete multiple steps with limited human direction. The company says Opus 5.5 showed major improvements in agentic coding, computer use and knowledge work during testing.
The lower cost could be just as important as the performance gains. Anthropic charges $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens for Opus 5.5, compared with $5 and $25 for Opus 5. The model also uses fewer tokens to complete many tasks, helping reduce the overall cost of running it.
Opus 5.5 is now available through Claude and Anthropic’s developer platform, along with major cloud platforms. Its arrival comes as leading AI companies increasingly compete not only over which models are smartest, but also over how quickly and affordably those models can perform useful work.
The Readovia Lens
The AI race is beginning to shift from simply building more powerful models to making that power practical and affordable. Claude Opus 5.5 shows how quickly advanced AI is becoming faster and less expensive to use — a combination that could make sophisticated AI tools accessible for far more everyday business tasks.
