Anthropic Launches Claude Haiku 5.5 with Lower Pricing
Anthropic's new Claude Haiku 5.5 offers faster performance and a price point that aligns with OpenAI's GPT‑6 Luna for the first 100,000 tokens.
Anthropic has introduced Claude Haiku 5.5, its latest fast and low‑cost language model, as announced by Simon Willison on October 7, 2026. The release follows a promise made earlier in the year and positions Haiku 5.5 as a direct competitor to OpenAI's GPT‑6 Luna.
The previous version, Claude Haiku 4.5, debuted almost a year ago and was priced at $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output tokens, making it roughly ten times more expensive than GPT‑6 Luna at the time. By contrast, Haiku 5.5 matches Luna's pricing of $0.10 per million input and $0.50 per million output for usage up to 100,000 tokens.
Beyond the 100,000‑token threshold, Haiku 5.5’s cost rises fivefold to $0.50 per million input and $2.50 per million output, mirroring the tiered structure announced for Luna. This pricing adjustment aims to make Anthropic’s offering more competitive while retaining its performance advantages.
The launch signals Anthropic’s effort to close the price gap with OpenAI and refresh a model that had begun to show its age. Users looking for a cost‑effective alternative to GPT‑6 Luna now have a newer option with comparable rates for moderate token volumes.
*Source: Simon Willison*
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