anthropic launches new version of scaled-down ‘haiku’ model

Anthropic Unveils Claude Haiku 4.5

Anthropic announced the release of Claude Haiku 4.5 on Wednesday. This represents the latest iteration of their most compact model. According to a company blog post, it delivers performance comparable to Sonnet 4, but at a reduced cost – one-third, to be precise – and with more than double the speed.

Performance Benchmarks

The company supports these performance assertions with a variety of new benchmark findings. Haiku achieved a score of 73% on SWE-Bench verified and 41% on Terminal-Bench during Anthropic’s evaluations.

These results are slightly below those of Sonnet 4.5. However, they align with the performance levels of Sonnet 4, GPT-4.5, and Gemini 2.5 on both benchmarks.

Similar outcomes were observed in tests assessing tool utilization, computer operation, and visual reasoning capabilities.

Availability and Benefits

The updated Haiku version is now accessible across all Anthropic’s free subscription tiers. Anthropic anticipates it will be especially attractive for free AI product offerings.

It can deliver substantial functionality while minimizing demands on server infrastructure. The model’s lightweight design also facilitates the deployment of numerous Haiku agents concurrently, or in conjunction with more advanced models.

New Deployment Possibilities

Mike Krieger, Anthropic’s CPO, stated that Haiku will enable novel deployment strategies in production environments. “It’s creating completely new possibilities for AI applications in production – with Sonnet managing intricate planning while Haiku-powered sub-agents operate with speed,” Krieger explained.

He further added, “We are providing a comprehensive agent toolkit where each model possesses the optimal balance of intelligence, speed, and cost for specific tasks.”

Applications in Software Development

The initial applications are expected to emerge within software development tools. Claude Code is already widely used in this area, and reduced latency is often crucial.

Andrew Filev, CEO of Zencoder, described the new Haiku version as “unlocking a completely new range of use cases” in statements released by Anthropic.

Recent Anthropic Launches

The release of Haiku 4.5 follows a series of significant product launches from Anthropic. Sonnet 4.5 was launched two weeks prior, and Opus 4.1 debuted two months before that. Both were recognized as cutting-edge upon their respective releases.

The previous Haiku version was made available in October 2024.