What's New in Claude · Updated 13 October 2026
Every Claude release, and what it means for your company.
Anthropic ships something most weeks: a model, a feature in the Claude apps, a change to the API or to Claude Code. Most of it does not matter to a company. The releases that do are below, newest first, each one with what changed, what it means and what to do that week.
The facts come from Anthropic’s own release notes and announcements, linked on every post. The view on what it means is ours, from the firms we work with as a member of Anthropic’s Claude Partner Network. For the bigger question behind all of them, start at How will Claude affect my business?
Releases
what's new in claude
Newest first.
5 releases since September 2026. Smaller changes are left out unless they change what a company should do.
- 7 October 2026: Claude Haiku 5.5, cheaper Sonnet 5.5, and API credits on Team plans
- Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 on 7 October 2026: its cheapest and fastest model, about 75% cheaper to run than Haiku 4.5. The same day, Sonnet 5.5 cache reads were halved and Max and Team plans gained monthly API credits. What changed, what it means for a company, and what to do this week.
- 28 September 2026: Claude Sonnet 5.5, and the Sonnet 4.5 retirement date
- Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5.5 on 28 September 2026: 30% faster than Sonnet 5, up to 30% cheaper per task, and strongest at everyday documents, slides and spreadsheets. Sonnet 4.5 retires from the Claude API on 30 November 2026. What changed, what it means for a company, and what to do this week.
- 22 September 2026: Claude Opus 5.5, the new default for serious work
- Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 on 22 September 2026: performance at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 on most work, 40% cheaper to run than Opus 5, clearer writing, and higher usage limits on paid plans. What changed, what it means for a company, and what to do this week.
- 16 September 2026: Cowork and chat become one Claude
- From 16 September 2026 Anthropic is merging Claude chat and Claude Cowork into one conversation: no mode to choose, whole tasks handed off, finished files back, scheduled work, and connected apps. Rolling out to Pro and Max first. What changed, what it means for a company, and what to do this week.
- 16 September 2026: Claude Docs, Slides and Design in any conversation
- Since 16 September 2026 you can ask Claude for a document, a deck or a design in any conversation and edit it with Claude or your team. Claude Docs turns on by default for Enterprise plans on 15 October 2026. What changed, what it means for a company, and what to do this week.
How we write these
Sourced, checked, and signed.
Every post starts from Anthropic’s published sources: the Claude Platform release notes, the Claude apps release notes, the Claude Code changelog and Anthropic’s announcements. Every price, date and figure on a post is the vendor’s own and is linked at the bottom of the page.
Each post is checked against those sources and approved by Fatjon (Tony) Kalemaj before it goes up. Where we have tested a release ourselves, the post says what we ran and shows it; where we have not, it says nothing about testing at all.
Questions
Questions about Claude releases.
Answered in full, so the answer is here when you need it.
Where does Anthropic publish Claude release notes?
In four places: the Claude Platform release notes for the API and Console, the Claude Help Center release notes for the Claude apps, the CHANGELOG in the claude-code repository on GitHub for Claude Code, and anthropic.com/news for announcements. This page collects the releases that matter to a company from all four.
How often does Claude get updated?
Most weeks. Between 1 September and 13 October 2026, Anthropic shipped four new models, merged Claude chat and Cowork, launched Claude Docs, Slides and Design, and published 37 Claude Code releases.
What is the latest Claude model?
As of 13 October 2026, the current models are Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Haiku 5.5. Anthropic's documentation recommends starting with Opus 5.5 for most work.
Want this working inside your firm?
We run Claude workshops on your own documents and stay on as your teams adopt each release. Write to us and say what you are trying to get done.
Subject line: Claude: What's New