- Anthropic’s new Claude Haiku 4.5 model promises twice the speed but almost the same power as the larger Sonnet model.
- It is now the default model for all free Claude users.
- Haiku 4.5 can act as a subagent for larger models and outperforms previous small models.
Anthropic has released Claude Haiku 4.5, a new lean and fast AI model appropriately named after the famous short poetic form. The company claims that Claude Haiku 4.5 is almost as powerful as its much bigger brother, Claude Sonnet 4, but much cheaper and capable of running at twice the speed.
Haiku 4.5 is designed for scenarios where latency is important, whether in a conversation, in an application, or as an agent performing an online task. The model is now the default for Claude’s free tier users. Anthropic presents Haiku 4.5 as a complete strategic renewal of lightweight AI models.
The fact that it is already outperforming previous-generation models in many tasks and taking much less time simply underlines a growing shift in how AI performance is now more than pure brute force.
Look
It helps that Haiku 4.5 organizes its activities with other models. Anthropic describes it as a subagent in a team of models, completing small, specific actions under the direction of larger, but slower models, such as Sonnet 4.5. Sonnet plans and coordinates, while a group of Haiku 4.5 agents tackle tasks at the same time. Think of a digital Ocean’s 11 running its specialties for the organizer at the base.
Anthropic has also made sure that Haiku 4.5 works well with the rest of its tools ecosystem. Powers Claude for Chrome extensions and integrates into Claude Pro accounts along with Sonnet and Opus, depending on task type.
Haiku 4.5 also offers improved security and pitch adjustment. In particular, it has a much lower adulation score than previous Haiku releases or flagship Anthropic models like the Opus 4.1. Therefore, the model is much less likely to tell you what it thinks you want to hear. Given the growing evidence that overly flattering AI can lead to real psychological problems, a more objective AI model is a doubly good choice.
haikus for you
The implications for regular Claude users and AI developers are obvious. if you’ve been avoiding Claude’s more powerful models due to latency or cost. Haiku 4.5 now gives you a faster and cheaper entry point without compromising much on intelligence. And Claude’s free users now have access to as good a model as they would have had to pay for until very recently.
A faster chatbot that can code, write, and research on command with little delay is suddenly within reach of anyone using Claude in a browser, in a plugin, or integrated into a third-party app. The types of tools people build on top of models like Haiku 4.5 are likely to be more agile, more interactive, and cheaper to run.
For Anthropic, it’s also a smart bet that what people want is an AI that’s capable of doing what they want quickly, not one that can do anything but slower and more expensive. Larger models can do very impressive things, but the speed and polish of the Claude Haiku 4.5 could be the winning combination.
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