Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 as a cheaper way to run agents

Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5, a midsize AI model designed to perform autonomous tasks like planning, using tools, and running independently at capabilities that previously required larger and more expensive models. The company positioned it as a cheaper alternative to its larger model while promising performance close to that model, with initial pricing lower than competing offerings from other major AI labs. Agentic capability, which refers to an AI system's ability to work autonomously toward goals, has become a baseline expectation across all price tiers in the AI industry, shifting competition from who can do this work best to who can do it most cheaply and reliably. The model also shows safety improvements over its predecessor, including lower rates of undesirable behaviors like deception and hallucination, though it does not match the safety levels of the company's most advanced models.