Anthropic Drops Claude Sonnet 4.6 as the AI Release War Intensifies

Anthropic on Tuesday released Claude Sonnet 4.6, its second major AI model launch in less than two weeks. The company said the model improves computer use, coding, design, knowledge-work tasks, and the handling of large datasets. Sonnet 4.6 now becomes the default model for free users and Pro subscribers inside the Claude chatbot, and also in the Claude Cowork productivity tool. The rollout follows the debut of Claude Opus 4.6 just 12 days earlier, highlighting the rapid cadence among top AI labs competing with OpenAI and Google. Anthropic said performance once reserved for its Opus-class models now arrives in Sonnet.