Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5.5, now the free-tier default on claude.ai

Anthropic 发布 Claude Sonnet 5.5，更快更便宜并成为 claude.ai 免费层默认模型

Claude Sonnet 5.5 beats Sonnet 5 on every benchmark, runs 30%+ faster, and costs up to 30% less for most work. The big move: it's now the free-tier default on claude.ai, which Simon Willison tested and got a solid WebGL 3D pelican on a bicycle. The 'max' thinking effort still hits the same bug as Opus 5.5—128K tokens of thought with no output, costing $1.28. 'xhigh' delivered a decent SVG in 41 seconds for 5.74 cents. Anthropic says Haiku 5.5 is coming in weeks; Simon hopes it's price-competitive with GPT-6 Luna.

Why it matters: Putting the latest Sonnet on the free tier is a real product strategy shift, not a routine model update. Simon's hands-on test delivers concrete numbers ($1.28 burned, 5.74 cents for the working render, 41-second latency), and the max-mode bug matching Opus 5.5 is a useful sig...