Anthropic just shipped Claude Sonnet 5 — the most agentic Sonnet yet — and on the work that matters it now sits right next to Opus 4.8, the flagship, at roughly a third of the price. But the lowest price is introductory and ends August 31, 2026. This one-page Switch Kit is everything you need to act on it: the verified benchmark numbers, the exact pricing math, when to use Sonnet 5 vs Opus 4.8, how to switch your agents today, and the workflows it now finishes on its own.

Get the free Sonnet 5 Switch Kit (pricing math + when-to-use checklist)

Claude Sonnet 5 launched June 30, 2026 as the most agentic Sonnet model yet — and on the benchmarks that matter for real work it now lands right next to Opus 4.8 at roughly a third of the price. This Switch Kit gives you the receipts and the playbook. THE NUMBERS (verified from Anthropic's launch page): agentic coding 80.4% on Terminal-Bench 2.1 (vs Opus 82.7%), computer use 81.2% on OSWorld-Verified (vs 83.4%), and knowledge work 1618 on GDPval-AA v2 — actually edging out Opus 4.8's 1615. THE PRICING: introductory $2 / $10 per million input/output tokens through August 31, 2026, then $3 / $15 — versus Opus 4.8 at $5 / $25 — plus the 30-second cost rule and a worked example. THE DECISION FRAMEWORK: exactly when to reach for Sonnet 5 vs Opus 4.8, and how to use the new effort dial to slide along a single cost-vs-performance curve. HOW TO SWITCH TODAY: it's the default on Free & Pro, live in Claude Code (/model claude-sonnet-5), on the API (model id claude-sonnet-5), and on AWS & Microsoft Foundry (Vertex soon). 6 COPY-PASTE WORKFLOWS Sonnet 5 now finishes end to end (bug-repro-fix-verify, two-part business automation, brownfield root-cause fixes, PR-to-tested-result, self-checking output). Plus the two honest catches: the new tokenizer can use ~1.0-1.35x more tokens, and for the absolute hardest problems and serious cybersecurity work Opus 4.8 is still the recommended model.

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