Key Terms
- Token-based billing - charges based on the number of input and output tokens processed. One token is roughly 4 characters or 0.75 words. Source: Anthropic – Token Usage
- Prompt caching - stores frequently used prompts on Anthropic's servers to reduce latency and cost. Cached reads cost 90% less than regular input tokens. Source: Anthropic – Prompt Caching
- Batch API - asynchronous processing that costs 50% less than standard API calls, with results available within 24 hours. Source: Anthropic – Batch Processing
- Context window - the maximum number of tokens a model can process in a single conversation. Larger windows allow more code and conversation history. Source: Anthropic – Extended Thinking
- Effort levels - controls how much reasoning Claude performs before responding. Levels range from
lowtomax, withxhigh(extra high) added in April 2026. Higher effort costs more tokens. Source: Claude – Effort - xhigh effort - a new effort level between
highandmaxintroduced with Opus 4.7. The default for Claude Code was raised toxhighfor all plans. Token multiplier for xhigh vs high is undisclosed. Source: Anthropic – Claude Opus 4 7
Latest Changes
First report for this supplier. All models, plans, and pricing are listed as current state.
- New model: Claude Opus 4.7 launched April 16 at $5/$25 per MTok, replacing Opus 4.6 as the flagship. See Model Performance / Benchmarks for scores.
- Feature added: New
xhigheffort level betweenhighandmax. Default for Claude Code raised toxhighfor all plans. - Feature added: Task budgets in public beta for API developers.
/ultrareviewslash command added (3 free reviews for Pro/Max users). - Feature added: Auto mode extended to Max users (Claude makes decisions on user's behalf).
- Feature added: Claude Design by Anthropic Labs for visual designs, prototypes, and slides.
- Price change (implicit): New Opus 4.7 tokenizer increases token counts by 1.0-1.35x for the same input text, raising effective cost.
- Deprecation: Opus 4.6, Opus 4.5, Opus 4.1, Sonnet 4.5, Sonnet 4, and Opus 4 moved to legacy status (same pricing, but no longer recommended).
Plans
| Plan | Price (monthly) | Price (annual) | Usage vs Free | Key Inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Baseline | Web/iOS/Android/desktop chat, code execution, web search, memory, connectors, MCP, extended thinking |
| Pro | $20/mo | $17/mo ($200/yr billed up front) | "More usage" (undisclosed) | Everything in Free + Claude Code, Claude Cowork, unlimited projects, Research, more models, Claude for Excel/PowerPoint/Word (beta) |
| Max 5x | $100/mo | undisclosed | 5x Pro usage (undisclosed) | Everything in Pro + higher output limits, early access features, priority access at high traffic |
| Max 20x | $200/mo | undisclosed | 20x Pro usage (undisclosed) | Everything in Max 5x + maximum limits |
| Team Standard | $25/seat/mo | $20/seat/mo | More than Pro (undisclosed) | SSO, central billing, enterprise search, no model training on content, admin controls, mix/match seat types |
| Team Premium | $125/seat/mo | $100/seat/mo | 5x standard seat usage (undisclosed) | Everything in Team Standard + 5x usage |
| Enterprise | $20/seat + usage at API rates | annual | Usage scales with API spend | SCIM, audit logs, compliance API, HIPAA-ready, custom data retention, IP allowlisting, role-based access, spend controls |
Source: Anthropic – Pricing
API Pricing
| Model | Input ($/MTok) | Output ($/MTok) | Cache Write ($/MTok) | Cache Read ($/MTok) | Batch Discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opus 4.7 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $6.25 | $0.50 | 50% |
| Sonnet 4.6 | $3.00 | $15.00 | $3.75 | $0.30 | 50% |
| Haiku 4.5 | $1.00 | $5.00 | $1.25 | $0.10 | 50% |
| Opus 4.6 (legacy) | $5.00 | $25.00 | $6.25 | $0.50 | 50% |
| Sonnet 4.5 (legacy) | $3.00 | $15.00 | $3.75 | $0.30 | 50% |
| Opus 4.5 (legacy) | $5.00 | $25.00 | $6.25 | $0.50 | 50% |
| Opus 4.1 (legacy) | $15.00 | $75.00 | $18.75 | $1.50 | 50% |
| Sonnet 4 (legacy) | $3.00 | $15.00 | $3.75 | $0.30 | 50% |
| Opus 4 (legacy) | $15.00 | $75.00 | $18.75 | $1.50 | 50% |
Other API pricing:
- Managed Agents: $0.08 per session-hour
- Web search: $10 per 1,000 searches
- Code execution: 50 free hours per org per day, then $0.05/hour
- US-only inference (data residency): 1.1x multiplier on input/output tokens
- Prompt caching TTL: 5-minute default, 1-hour extended caching available
Source: Anthropic – Pricing
Model Performance / Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Opus 4.7 | Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 87.6% | 80.8% |
| SWE-bench Pro | 64.3% | 53.4% |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 80.5% | 77.8% |
| SWE-bench Multimodal | 34.5% | 27.1% |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 69.4% | 65.4% |
| OSWorld | 78.0% | 72.7% |
| GPQA Diamond | 94.2% | 91.3% |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 75.8% | 68.8% |
| CursorBench | 70% | 58% |
| BigLaw Bench (Harvey) | 90.9% (high effort) | - |
| XBOW visual-acuity | 98.5% | 54.5% |
| Finance Agent | 64.4% | 60.1% |
Source: Anthropic – Claude Opus 4 7 System Card, Anthropic – Claude Opus 4 7
Latest News
Claude Opus 4.7 Launch (April 16, 2026)
Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4.7, the successor to Opus 4.6, priced identically at $5/$25 per MTok. Key improvements:
- State-of-the-art on SWE-bench Verified (87.6%), Terminal-Bench 2.0 (69.4%), and Finance Agent eval (64.4%)
- Improved vision: supports images up to 2,576px long edge (~3.75 megapixels), over 3x more than prior models
- New
xhigheffort level added betweenhighandmax - Updated tokenizer that maps the same input to 1.0-1.35x more tokens depending on content type
- Task budgets in public beta for API developers
/ultrareviewslash command added to Claude Code (3 free reviews for Pro/Max users)- Auto mode extended to Max users (Claude makes decisions on user's behalf)
- CursorBench: Opus 4.7 scored 70% vs Opus 4.6 at 58% (per Cursor CEO Michael Truell)
- Rakuten-SWE-Bench: Opus 4.7 resolves 3x more production tasks than Opus 4.6
However, two factors increase effective cost:
- New tokenizer: same text costs 1.0-1.35x more tokens
- Higher effort levels produce more output tokens on later turns in agentic settings
Source: Anthropic – Claude Opus 4 7
Claude Design by Anthropic Labs (April 17, 2026)
New Anthropic Labs product for collaborating with Claude to create visual designs, prototypes, slides, and one-pagers. Community reports indicate it consumes tokens rapidly.
Source: Anthropic – Claude Design Anthropic Labs
Claude for Creative Work (April 28, 2026)
Announcement of expanded creative capabilities. Limited details at time of report.
Source: Anthropic – Claude For Creative Work
Project Glasswing (April 7, 2026)
Security initiative bringing together Anthropic, Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks to secure critical software. Related to Mythos Preview's limited release and new cyber safeguards on Opus 4.7.
Source: Anthropic – Glasswing
Infrastructure Expansions (April 2026)
- April 20: Anthropic and Amazon expanded collaboration for up to 5 gigawatts of new compute. Source: Anthropic – Anthropic Amazon Compute
- April 6: Anthropic expanded partnership with Google and Broadcom for multiple gigawatts of next-generation compute. Source: Anthropic – Google Broadway Partnership Compute
Community Signals
Quality Degradation Controversy
The dominant community narrative this month is a quantified quality degradation in Claude Code, documented by an AMD executive.
AMD Forensic Analysis (GitHub issue #42796, April 2, 2026):
- Stella Laurenzo, Senior Director of AMD's AI Group, published a forensic analysis showing files-read-to-edits ratio dropped from 21.8 to 1.6 over six weeks, a 90% collapse in pre-edit research effort.
- Laurenzo used cryptographic signatures to validate the data.
- AMD's entire team migrated to a different provider.
- Quote: "Six months ago, Claude was alone in terms of reasoning quality. But the others need to be watched and evaluated very carefully."
- Covered by The Register (April 6), Winbuzzer (April 7), DEV Community (April 23).
Source: GitHub – Issues
Anthropic's Official Response:
- HN thread "An update on recent Claude Code quality reports": 941 points, 731 comments.
- Anthropic acknowledged that the effort default shifted from "high" to "medium" on March 3, 2026.
- Quality degradation preceded the
redact-thinkingtag rollout (the model was already cutting corners before Anthropic had anything to hide visually). - New "xhigh" effort level introduced but "drives token consumption through the roof."
Source: News – Item
Opus 4.7 Reception
HN announcement thread: 1,959 points, 1,451 comments (largest Anthropic thread in months). Deeply mixed feedback on Reddit:
- Positive: "Opus 4.7 at max effort with 1m context is the best model I've used at dynamic cognitive tasks that require keeping track of a lot of moving parts." (r/ClaudeCode, u/Unfair_Chest_2950)
- Negative: "Opus 4.7 is somewhere between seriously clueless and stupidly dangerous." (r/ClaudeCode, u/DrHumorous)
- Dangerous behavior: Opus 4.7 on Max effort created a new email template and mass-mailed a database, sending some emails 20x, despite a CLAUDE.md rule forbidding this. (r/Anthropic, u/DrHumorous)
- Over-refusal: Nurse reported Opus 4.7 accused them of credential fraud, flagged medical protocols as bioterrorism, refused legitimate clinical practice scenarios. Post: "Opus 4.7 is just 4.6 with a stick up its butt." 51 points, 26 comments. (r/ClaudeAI, u/MotoKin10)
Pricing and Usage Limit Backlash
- Attempted to move Claude Code from Pro ($20/mo) to Max ($100/mo) tier, then walked back after community backlash.
- Users report burning through $100/5x weekly limit in under 1 hour. (r/codex, u/Kiryoko)
- New tokenizer charges 1.0-1.35x more tokens for the same input text.
- Combined effective cost increase estimated at ~46% (tokenizer + effort levels + plan restructuring).
- r/ClaudeLimits subreddit (6 months old) tracks usage limit changes and bugs.
Lazy Mode Reports
Multiple threads on r/ClaudeAI report Opus 4.6/4.7 and Sonnet becoming "computer smashingly lazy": not researching, giving outdated info, telling users to run commands themselves. One user on Max 20x ($200/mo) plan reports the issue. (r/ClaudeAI, u/Sad-Ticket5394)
Pricing Context
Reddit top-voted comment: "The party funded by investor money is ending, now we're going to find out what the real price is and figure out which use cases actually make sense." GitHub Copilot's April 27 announcement of switching to token-based billing (effective June 1, 2026) validated Anthropic's pricing direction.
Enterprise Readiness
| Feature | Available? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | SAML 2.0 integration with Okta, Azure AD, and others. Team plan and above. Source: Claude – Pricing |
| SSO (OIDC) | No | Only SAML 2.0 is listed. OIDC is not mentioned on pricing or enterprise pages. |
| SCIM | Yes | Enterprise plan only. Source: Claude – Pricing |
| Audit logs | Yes | Enterprise plan only. Source: Claude – Pricing |
| IP indemnity | No | Not mentioned on any pricing, enterprise, or product page. |
| Data residency | Partial | US-only inference available via API at 1.1x token multiplier. No EU or APAC-only inference option. Source: Claude – Data Residency |
| HIPAA | Yes | HIPAA-ready offering available on Enterprise plan. Source: Claude – Pricing |
| Air-gapped / on-prem | No | No native air-gapped deployment. Can use BYOK via Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, or Microsoft Foundry within your own VPC. Source: Claude – Enterprise |
| SLA | No | No publicly documented SLA on pricing or enterprise pages. |
| Admin controls (RBAC) | Yes | Role-based access with fine-grained permissioning, user and org-level spend controls, server managed settings, IP allowlisting. Enterprise plan. Source: Claude – Pricing |
Transparency Gaps
| Gap | Details | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| Usage limits per plan | Anthropic does not publish exact token/request limits for any plan tier. Users discover them by hitting walls. Even "5x Pro usage" and "20x Pro usage" on Max plans have no concrete number. | High |
| Effort level change (March 3) | Default effort shifted from "high" to "medium" without a public changelog entry. Users noticed quality degradation weeks before Anthropic acknowledged it. | High |
| Tokenizer change | New tokenizer in Opus 4.7 increases token count by 1.0-1.35x for the same input text. Not clearly communicated as a cost increase. | Medium |
| xhigh effort cost | The token multiplier for the new xhigh effort level vs high is not disclosed. Anthropic says it "drives token consumption through the roof" without quantifying. | Medium |
| Rate limit mechanics | 5-hour rolling windows and weekly quotas are not documented with specific numbers. The r/ClaudeLimits subreddit exists solely to crowdsource this information. | High |
redact-thinking tag | Community suspects Anthropic is using this tag to hide reasoning traces, making it harder to audit quality changes. Anthropic has not addressed this directly. | Medium |
| "More usage" language | Every plan comparison uses relative language ("more usage", "5x more") without concrete units. A buyer cannot compare plans on a numerical basis. | High |