Claude Sonnet 5: Release Date, Price and Specs Explained
In short: Claude Sonnet 5 is a mid-sized model from Anthropic, released on June 30, 2026. Through Anthropic's API it costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with a 1-million-token context window. Its successor, Claude Sonnet 5.5, was released on September 28, 2026 at the same price, and Sonnet 5 now appears under "additional models" on Anthropic's pricing page.
What is Claude Sonnet 5?
Claude Sonnet 5 is the middle model in Anthropic's Claude 5 family - between the larger Opus and the smaller, faster Haiku. Anthropic describes its Sonnet models as "the best combination of speed and intelligence", the same wording it uses for Sonnet 5.5 on its models overview.
If you are new to the naming: Anthropic releases models in sizes, and each size has a name.
- Haiku - the smallest and fastest, for high-volume simple tasks.
- Sonnet - the middle size, balancing speed and capability.
- Opus - larger, for long and complex work.
- Fable - Anthropic's highest-capability line, slower and more expensive.
The number after the name is the generation: Sonnet 5 came after Sonnet 4.6, and Sonnet 5.5 came after Sonnet 5.
When was Claude Sonnet 5 released?
Claude Sonnet 5 was released on June 30, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5 followed on September 28, 2026.
How much does Claude Sonnet 5 cost?
Through the API, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, according to Anthropic's pricing page. A token is a small chunk of text, roughly three-quarters of an English word - see what a token is.
| Item | Price per million tokens |
|---|---|
| Input | $2 |
| Output | $10 |
| Prompt caching - 5-minute write | $2.50 |
| Prompt caching - 1-hour write | $4 |
| Prompt caching - cache hit | $0.20 |
At launch the $2/$10 rate was described as introductory and scheduled to rise to $3/$15 on 1 September 2026. On 10 August 2026 Anthropic made the $2/$10 price permanent. For comparison, the older Claude Sonnet 4.6 is listed at $3/$15.
In the Claude apps, you do not pay per token. Anthropic's consumer plans are Free ($0), Pro ($20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually) and Max (from $100 a month). The pricing page does not list which plan includes which specific model.
What are Claude Sonnet 5's specs?
- Context window: 1 million tokens - the amount of text it can consider at once.
- Maximum output: 128,000 tokens in one reply.
- Input: text and images; output: text.
- Thinking: adaptive - the model can spend extra steps reasoning before it answers.
Anthropic does not publish how many parameters Sonnet 5 has.
How does Claude Sonnet 5 rank?
On LMArena's text leaderboard, a ranking built from blind human votes between models, Sonnet 5 has 1462 Elo (rank 59, high effort). Sonnet 5.5 has 1477 Elo (rank 31, xhigh effort). Rankings update daily on our benchmarks table.
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Sonnet 5.5
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Released | June 30, 2026 | September 28, 2026 |
| Input / output price | $2 / $10 | $2 / $10 |
| Cache hit price | $0.20 | $0.10 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Max output | 128K tokens | 128K tokens |
Both prices are from Anthropic's pricing page; Sonnet 5.5's specs are from its models overview. See them side by side.
Related
Frequently asked questions
What is Claude Sonnet 5?+
Claude Sonnet 5 is a large language model made by Anthropic. It is the mid-sized model in the Claude 5 family, between the larger Opus and the smaller Haiku, and it powers the Claude chatbot and Anthropic's API for developers.
When did Claude Sonnet 5 come out?+
Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5 on June 30, 2026. Its successor, Claude Sonnet 5.5, was released on September 28, 2026.
How much does Claude Sonnet 5 cost?+
Through Anthropic's API, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.20 per million. In the Claude apps, Anthropic's plans are Free, Pro at $20 a month and Max from $100 a month.
Is Claude Sonnet 5 still available?+
Yes. Anthropic's pricing page still lists Claude Sonnet 5, under additional models, at $2 and $10 per million tokens. Its current Sonnet model is Claude Sonnet 5.5.
What is the difference between Claude Sonnet 5 and Sonnet 5.5?+
Sonnet 5.5 is the newer version, released on September 28, 2026. Both cost $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens and have a 1-million-token context window; Sonnet 5.5 has a lower cache-hit price, $0.10 instead of $0.20 per million tokens.
How many parameters does Claude Sonnet 5 have?+
Anthropic does not publish parameter counts for its Claude models, including Sonnet 5.
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