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Claude Haiku 5.5: Anthropic's cheapest model gets much cheaper

Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 on October 7. Input tokens now start at $0.10 per million. Here is what changed and which jobs to move to it.

By Brandon Rangel October 7, 2026 2 min read 7/7 claims sourced

Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 on October 7 7. It is the small, fast model in the Claude lineup, and the headline is price. Anthropic says it costs around 75% less to run than Haiku 4.5 on average 1.

The new prices

Anthropic's pricing table lists Haiku 5.5 at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens for prompts up to 100k tokens. Above 100k, it is $0.50 input and $2.50 output. Haiku 4.5 was $1.00 input and $5.00 output 2.

So for prompts under 100k tokens, input is a tenth of what Haiku 4.5 cost 2. Long prompts cost more per token, so check where your jobs land before you assume the full saving.

What it is built for

Anthropic positions Haiku 5.5 for quick, repetitive work, naming summaries, database queries and classification requests 3. It is also the first Haiku model with an adjustable effort setting, so you can trade quality for cost per request 4.

Two other changes in the same announcement

Sonnet 5.5 cache reads are half price. Anthropic says that makes Sonnet 5.5 around 20% cheaper on most agentic work 6.
Max and Team subscribers get a monthly API credit: $100 for Max 5x, $200 for Max 20x, and up to $500 pooled for Team 5.

// Receipts

1
Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5 Anthropic · primary source · checked 2026-10-14 Haiku 5.5 is available at a much lower price than Haiku 4.5. On average, it now costs around 75% less to run.
2
Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5 — pricing table Anthropic · primary source · checked 2026-10-14 Input tokens $0.10 / $0.50 $1.00 $2.00 Output tokens $0.50 / $2.50 $5.00 $10.00
3
Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5 — what it is for Anthropic · primary source · checked 2026-10-14 It reliably handles quick and repetitive workloads (like summaries, compactions, database queries, and classification requests).
4
Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5 — effort setting Anthropic · primary source · checked 2026-10-14 Haiku 5.5 is our first Haiku-class model to come with an adjustable effort setting.
5
Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5 — API credits for subscribers Anthropic · primary source · checked 2026-10-14 Max 5x users will get $100 in credits per month, Max 20x users will get $200, and Team subscribers will receive up to $500, pooled across their users.
6
Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5 — Sonnet cache reads Anthropic · primary source · checked 2026-10-14 We're halving the price of Claude Sonnet 5.5's cache reads, which means Sonnet 5.5 now runs around 20% cheaper on most agentic work.
7
Anthropic newsroom Anthropic · primary source · checked 2026-10-14 Oct 7, 2026 Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5

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