Anthropic has launched Claude Sonnet 5.5, its latest mid-tier AI model, with major gains in coding, knowledge work, computer use, and visual understanding.
The new model generates responses more than 30% faster than Claude Sonnet 5 and can cost up to 30% less per task because it uses fewer tokens to complete the same work.
Pricing remains at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with cache reads at $0.20 per million tokens.
Coding and Performance
Claude Sonnet 5.5 brings a substantial improvement in agentic coding. It scores 70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, compared with 10.3% for Sonnet 5.
It also reaches 46.2% on FrontierCode 1.1 at maximum effort and 55.5% on CursorBench 4.0. Anthropic says the model can understand large codebases quickly and complete coding tasks in fewer steps by batching tool calls more efficiently.
The company says Sonnet 5.5 can handle tens of thousands of lines of code and sustain multi-hour coding tasks while keeping responses fast.
On some evaluations, its performance at higher effort levels approaches Claude Opus 5.5, although Anthropic says Opus 5.5 remains stronger for complex, open-ended work requiring sustained judgment.
Faster Everyday Work
Anthropic positions Sonnet 5.5 as a model for well-defined everyday tasks that require a balance of speed, capability, and cost.
It is designed for tasks such as fixing bugs, creating documents, building presentations, and working with spreadsheets. The model also improves at following visual and design requirements, including creating polished user interfaces and presentations that need less manual editing.
On the GDPval-AA benchmark for real-world professional tasks across 44 occupations and nine industries, Sonnet 5.5 scores 1,844, nearly matching Opus 5.5 at 1,846 and well above Sonnet 5’s 1,449.
The model also improves computer-use performance and visual chart recognition, with scores of 80.1% and 61.6%, respectively, on Anthropic’s reported evaluations.
It Can Beat Pokémon Red
Sonnet 5.5 also demonstrates stronger long-horizon reasoning and image understanding.
Anthropic says it is the first Sonnet model capable of beating Pokémon Red while working only from screenshots. The result highlights its ability to interpret visual information and carry out tasks over extended sequences rather than simply responding to individual prompts.
Lower Cost Per Task
Although Sonnet 5.5 has the same listed token prices as Sonnet 5, Anthropic says the new model generally requires fewer tokens to complete tasks.
The company reports that this makes Sonnet 5.5 up to 30% cheaper per task than its predecessor. At lower effort settings, Anthropic says the model can also outperform Sonnet 5’s previous best results on some benchmarks at a fraction of the cost.
Its faster generation further reduces the time required for routine tasks.
Stronger Safeguards
Sonnet 5.5 also introduces stronger safeguards alongside its improved capabilities.
Anthropic says the model’s cybersecurity abilities have improved significantly compared with Sonnet 5. As a result, Sonnet 5.5 is the first Sonnet model to launch with cybersecurity safeguards and fallbacks similar to those used for Anthropic’s more capable models.
Routine software development and bug fixing remain supported, while higher-risk cybersecurity requests can fall back to Sonnet 5.
The model retains the same biology safeguards as Sonnet 5. Anthropic also says Sonnet 5.5 introduces additional protections against attempts to extract its reasoning through large-scale distillation attacks.
Availability and Pricing
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is now available across Anthropic’s platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
| Pricing | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
|---|---|
| Input tokens | $2 per million |
| Output tokens | $10 per million |
| Cache reads | $0.20 per million |
| Cache writes | $2.50 per million |
Anthropic says Sonnet 5.5 is intended to complement Claude Opus 5.5, with Sonnet targeting faster, well-scoped work while Opus remains focused on more complex tasks.
Anthropic also said Claude Haiku 5.5, designed for high-volume and cost-sensitive applications, will join the Claude 5.5 family in the coming weeks.
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