Live · Independent Opus 5 tracker · updated July 25, 2026
Opus 5 is live — near-flagship brains at half the flagship's price.
Anthropic shipped Claude Opus 5 on July 24, 2026. The pitch, in the company's own words: nearly all of Fable 5's intelligence at half the cost — $5 / $25 per million tokens. It's now the default model on Claude Max and the strongest model you can use on Claude Pro without buying usage credits. This site tracks what's confirmed: pricing, availability, and how it actually compares.
What's confirmed so far
Jul 24 Claude Opus 5 launches at $5/$25 per million tokens — the same price as Opus 4.8, which it replaces as the Opus-line flagship. Anthropic positions it as delivering "nearly all" of Fable 5's intelligence at half the cost (company claim; independent benchmarks are still landing).
Jul 24 It becomes the default model on Claude Max and the strongest model available on Claude Pro — notable because since July 20, Fable 5 on Pro requires usage credits.
Jul 24 Anthropic says Opus 5 runs with far fewer safety restrictions than Fable 5 — classifier interventions expected roughly 85% lower — and is exempt from the 30-day data-retention policy.
Context Since July 20, Fable 5 is included only on Max and Team Premium (up to 50% of weekly limits); Pro runs it on usage credits with a one-time $100 credit. Opus 5 resets that math for most Pro users — the comparison.
Common questions
Is Opus 5 free?
There's no free tier for Opus 5 specifically — it's included in paid Claude plans (default on Max, strongest on Pro) and priced at $5/$25 per million tokens on the API. Anything advertising a "free Opus 5 download" isn't the real model.
Is Opus 5 better than Fable 5?
Anthropic's own framing is "nearly all the intelligence at half the price" — i.e. Fable 5 stays on top, Opus 5 gets close for much less. Where the gap does and doesn't matter is exactly the useful question: our comparison.
Do I need Max to use it?
No — Pro includes it too (it's the strongest model on Pro). Max makes it the default and carries higher usage limits, plus in-plan Fable 5.
What's the API model ID?
claude-opus-5 — details on the API page.
Free briefing
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