Claude Opus 5.6: Release Date, Leaked Price & What We Know

Claude Opus 5.6 is not out, and Anthropic has not confirmed it. Opus 5.6 is the name people use for the next Opus after Claude Opus 5.5. Searches jumped in early November after a leak and a wave of "am I routed to Opus 5.6?" posts.

Here is what the leak says, the price math, the routing claims, and what to use while you wait. We update this page on the same URL when Anthropic ships.

Opus 5.6: the evidence so far

What the Opus 5.6 leak claims

• Price: about 20% lower than Opus 5.5.
• Coding: about 90% on SWE-bench.
• Limits: higher usage limits on paid plans.
• Tone: sounds less robotic.

The leak came through Kim Isenberg (@kimmonismus) and was reposted by several accounts. None of them showed a model ID, a model card or an Anthropic page.

Opus 5.6 price: the math

Opus 5.5 costs $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens. If Opus 5.6 is 20% cheaper, that is about $3.20 in and $16 out. That is our arithmetic from the leak, not a number from Anthropic. A cheaper Opus would matter most for Claude Code users, where Opus is the default model.

Are people being routed to Opus 5.6?

Several users say their Opus 5.5 chats suddenly felt like a new model: one-shot 3D films, cleaner Three.js scenes and fewer mistakes. A Reddit post on November 9 made the same claim. Others say the opposite, that Opus 5.5 got worse in early November. Neither side shows a model ID, so treat the routing story as a theory for now.

Pressure is growing too. After GPT-6.2 Sol demos beat Opus 5.5 on some 3D tests, many posts said Anthropic needs a new Opus now.

Opus 5.6 vs Fable 5.5 and Mythos 5.5

Three Anthropic names are in the air. Fable 5.5 would sit above Opus as the top model. Mythos 5.5 showed up in the source of Anthropic's Mythos page and is for selected partners. The next Opus would be the everyday model most Pro and API users actually run.

Should you wait for Opus 5.6?

For most teams, no. Anthropic has kept old prices and plans stable when a new Opus arrives, and switching is one model name in your settings or API call. Work you do on Opus 5.5 today carries over: prompts, Claude Code skills and project files all keep working.

Waiting only makes sense if you are about to sign a large prepaid deal, since a 20% cut would change the math. In that case, sign monthly for now and review when Anthropic posts prices.

Use Claude in Sumus while Opus 5.6 is on the way

Yes, you can work with Claude today. In Sumus, Claude Opus 5.5 and other top models join your team chat as AI employees, so your team can hand over tasks in plain words and review the results in one thread. When the new model ships, you switch and keep working.

What we're watching

• A claude-opus-5-6 model ID in the Anthropic API or docs.
• A new Opus price on Anthropic's pricing page.
• Claude Code release notes naming a new Opus.