TLDR
- Anthropic released Claude Opus 5, its most cost-effective model, priced at half the cost of Fable 5
- Opus 5 outperforms Fable 5 on coding and knowledge work benchmarks
- Anthropic filed confidential IPO paperwork in June and is on track to go public later this year
- OpenAI may delay its IPO to 2027 and faces a trade secrets lawsuit from Apple
- China’s Moonshot AI released its Kimi K3 model, which it claims rivals both Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol
Anthropic launched Claude Opus 5 on Friday, calling it its best-performing and most cost-effective AI model to date. The company says it outperforms its previous model, Fable 5, on coding and knowledge work tasks.
Introducing Claude Opus 5.
It's a thoughtful and proactive model that comes close to the frontier intelligence of Fable 5 at half the price. pic.twitter.com/GQWhcq2CQL
— Claude (@claudeai) July 24, 2026
Opus 5 costs $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens. That is half the price of Fable 5, making it a more attractive option for businesses watching their AI spending.
Anthropic describes Opus 5 as the model “designed to be used every day.” It sits below Fable 5 and Mythos 5 in the company’s model lineup, which now has four entries in the Claude 5 family.
Mythos 5 remains Anthropic’s most powerful model but is only available to a select group of companies. The company has restricted access due to its advanced cybersecurity capabilities.
Cost Pressure Driving Model Strategy
Enterprises have grown more cautious about AI spending. Anthropic’s head of product management for research, Dianne Penn, said customers want value, not just cheaper options.
“If it’s a cheaper model or a cheaper offering, but it’s not accomplishing a similar level of quality, it’s actually not useful,” she told CNBC.
Anthropic faces pricing pressure from Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and a number of Chinese AI startups. OpenAI released its GPT-5.6 family earlier this month, and Google is reportedly preparing a Gemini 3.5 Pro release, though that launch has reportedly been delayed.
China’s Moonshot AI also launched its open-weight Kimi K3 model last week. The lab says it nearly matches both Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol in performance.
IPO Race Adds More Pressure
The model launches are happening against a backdrop of IPO preparation. Anthropic filed confidential paperwork to go public in June and appears on track to list later this year.
OpenAI filed shortly after but may push its IPO to 2027. The company also faces a trade secrets lawsuit from Apple, which alleges OpenAI used proprietary Apple information, complicating its path to a public listing.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration forced Anthropic to pull Mythos 5 and Fable 5 from the market over cybersecurity concerns. Access was restored after roughly two weeks of negotiations.
Anthropic says it continues to work with government agencies on pre-deployment testing, including for Opus 5. The company confirmed Opus 5 remains behind Mythos 5 in offensive cybersecurity and biology research capabilities.
Unlike Fable 5, Opus 5 does not retain user data for 30 days. Anthropic holds Fable 5 data as part of its safety monitoring efforts.
The AI model race shows no signs of slowing as companies balance performance, cost, and regulatory demands heading into a high-stakes year for the industry.
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