# Opus 5: Near-Fable as the Daily Default—AA Snapshot Ahead of Sol

Times of AI Desk · 2026-07-24 · Models

[https://timesof.ai/2026/07/anthropic-claude-opus-5](https://timesof.ai/2026/07/anthropic-claude-opus-5)

> Anthropic launched Claude Opus 5 as a step-change Opus tier approaching Fable 5 on coding and knowledge-work evals at half the cost—$5/$25, default on Max. A July 24 Artificial Analysis snapshot listed Opus 5 (~60.7%) ahead of Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol; day-one boards move fast.

Opus 5 is Anthropic’s bid to make **“near-Fable” the daily default**—not a scarce frontier SKU. If independent arenas confirm cost-performance close to Fable at Opus price, Max/Pro defaults and agent platforms reprice the mid-frontier stack against **GPT-5.6 Sol**.

**Anthropic** launched **Claude Opus 5**, calling it a **step-change** for the Opus tier that comes close to **Claude Fable 5** frontier intelligence **at half the price**. Opus 5 is the **new default on Claude Max**, the **strongest model on Claude Pro**, and is available everywhere Claude runs at **$5 / $25 per million input/output tokens** (same as Opus 4.8), with optional **Fast mode** (~2.5× speed at 2× base price).

## Product and pricing

| Item | Detail |
|------|--------|
| **Model ID** | `claude-opus-5` |
| **Price** | **$5 / $25** per MTok input/output (unchanged from Opus 4.8) |
| **Fast mode** | ~**2.5×** default speed; **2×** base price on Claude Platform / usage credits in Claude Code |
| **Plan placement** | **Default on Max**; strongest model on **Pro** |
| **API extras (beta)** | Mid-conversation **tool changes** without busting prompt cache; **automatic fallbacks** when safety classifiers flag Opus 5 / Fable 5 |

Anthropic frames Opus 5 for **everyday professional use**: long-running agents, coding, and knowledge work, with stronger self-verification and iteration than Opus 4.8. Early-access quotes from Cursor, Devin, Zapier, Lovable, Box, and others emphasize debugging, end-to-end automation, and lower variance.

## Lab-reported performance (primary)

From Anthropic’s launch post:

- **Frontier-Bench v0.1** and **GDPval-AA**: Opus 5 claimed **new SOTA** on coding/knowledge-work style boards (still **behind Mythos 5** on cybersecurity).
- **CursorBench 3.2** (max effort): within **~0.5%** of Fable 5 peak at **half the cost per task**.
- **ARC-AGI 3**: ~**3×** next-best model (lab chart).
- **OSWorld 2.0**: best cost-performance; lab says it can beat Fable 5’s best result at just over **one-third** the cost.
- **Life sciences**: higher than Opus 4.8 on internal organic chemistry / protein-function style tasks.
- **Alignment**: automated behavioral audit scores Opus 5 as Anthropic’s **most aligned** recent model (lowest overall misaligned behavior in their chart).

Safeguards: cyber classifiers are **less restrictive than Fable 5** (~**85%** fewer interventions expected) but still block binary-based vuln scanning, pen-testing, and exploit generation; CVP enterprises get a less-restricted path. Biology blocked on Fable now routes to **Opus 5** rather than Opus 4.8. Opus 5 does **not** advance the dual-use cyber/bio frontier relative to **Mythos 5** (system card).

## Independent rankings

| Source | Snapshot | Standing |
|--------|----------|----------|
| **Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index** | Public mirror cited **July 24, 2026** (BenchLM display) | **Claude Opus 5 ~60.7%** — listed **ahead of Claude Fable 5 (~59.9%)** and **GPT-5.6 Sol (~58.9%)** among ~167 models on that snapshot |
| **LLM Stats / aggregate boards** | Day-of listings | Opus 5 appears as a **new** high-rank proprietary entry; full Arena Elo still **maturing** right after launch |

Day-one independent boards can move quickly; treat AA index figures as a **dated snapshot**, not a permanent ranking. Lab CursorBench / Frontier-Bench claims should be read beside third-party harnesses as votes accumulate on LMArena and coding arenas.

## Limits

- AA ~60.7% is a July 24 snapshot via BenchLM mirror—ranks can reshuffle within days.
- CursorBench / ARC-AGI / OSWorld figures are lab charts.
- Arena Elo was still maturing at launch.

## Sources

- [Anthropic: Introducing Claude Opus 5 (July 24, 2026)](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-5)
- [Anthropic: Claude Opus 5 System Card](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-5-system-card)
- [Artificial Analysis / BenchLM mirror of Intelligence Index snapshot citing Opus 5 (July 24, 2026)](https://benchlm.ai/benchmarks/artificialAnalysis)
- [Coursiv: Claude Opus 5 benchmarks & pricing guide (updated July 25, 2026)](https://coursiv.io/blog/claude-opus-5)