Anthropic has launched Claude Opus 5, aiming to provide near top-tier intelligence at half the cost, signaling a shift towards AI economics. This new model is priced the same as its predecessor and is now the default on Claude Max and the strongest on Claude Pro. Anthropic emphasizes that Opus 5 excels at economically important, moderately complex tasks, rather than the most cutting-edge or ambitious AI work. On benchmarks like Frontier-Bench and ARC-AGI, Opus 5 shows significant improvements, often surpassing its predecessor and even Claude Fable 5 in specific evaluations, while operating at a lower cost. However, Anthropic acknowledges limitations, with rival models still leading in areas like cybersecurity and biology research, and Fable 5 remaining superior for long-duration, autonomous projects. The key differentiator for Opus 5 is its token efficiency, with early users reporting substantial reductions in token usage and time for equivalent or better performance. This efficiency is crucial for enterprises facing significant inference costs, making Opus 5 a more economically viable solution for automation. Beyond performance metrics, Opus 5 demonstrates improved self-verification and iteration, reducing the need for human oversight and associated costs. Anthropic's safety approach involves intentionally limiting certain capabilities in Opus 5, creating an asymmetry between defense and offense in areas like cybersecurity. The launch occurs amidst Anthropic's substantial business growth and significant investments in compute infrastructure, with Opus 5's pricing strategy designed to expand the market for automated workloads.