--- title: "What's New in Claude and What It Means | By The People Tech" description: "Every Claude release, newest first, with what changed, what it means for a company and what to do this week. Sourced from Anthropic's own release notes." url: https://bythepeople.tech/claude/whats-new --- What's New in Claude · Updated 30 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](/announcements/by-the-people-technologies-joins-claude-partner-network). For the bigger question behind all of them, start at [How will Claude affect my business?](/claude) [Home](/) [Claude for Business](/claude) What's New in Claude Releases What's new in Claude? ## Newest first. 14 releases since September 2026. Smaller changes are left out unless they change what a company should do. [30 October 2026: Claude Opus 4.8 fast mode deprecation](/claude/whats-new/claude-opus-4-8-fast-mode-deprecation) Anthropic has deprecated fast mode for Claude Opus 4.8, with removal on 30 November 2026. After that, fast requests to claude-opus-4-8 return an error. [28 October 2026: Smart reports, surveys and pooled group budgets](/claude/whats-new/claude-enterprise-smart-reports-pooled-budgets) Anthropic has made smart reports, in-app surveys and pooled group budgets generally available for Claude Enterprise. See team work, spend and friction. [23 October 2026: Claude chat and Cowork unify for Enterprise](/claude/whats-new/claude-cowork-chat-unified-enterprise) Unified Claude chat and Cowork, on Pro and Max plans since September, is now generally available on Claude Enterprise, with admin controls by role. [22 October 2026: Claude Models on Google Cloud (Anthropic managed)](/claude/whats-new/claude-models-on-google-cloud-anthropic-managed) Claude Models on Google Cloud (Anthropic managed) is now generally available: the full Claude API, with Google Cloud IAM access and billing. [21 October 2026: Claude API version 2026-10-21 and new SDKs](/claude/whats-new/claude-api-version-2026-10-21) Anthropic has released Claude API version 2026-10-21. New SDKs send it by default, carry breaking changes and move from MIT to Apache 2.0. [21 October 2026: Claude Duet research preview](/claude/whats-new/claude-duet) Anthropic has opened a Claude Duet research preview: a proactive agent app for Pro and Max subscribers in the US, by waitlist, on iOS, Android and claude.ai. [21 October 2026: Claude Security scans continuously and tracks fixes](/claude/whats-new/claude-security-continuous-scanning) Claude Security now scans repositories continuously and tracks fixes, in public beta for Claude Enterprise customers. Free credits apply through 31 Dec 2026. [15 October 2026: Claude Code Review is generally available](/claude/whats-new/claude-code-review-generally-available) Claude Code Review is now generally available for Team and Enterprise. Eligible Enterprise orgs can claim at least $10,000 in credits by 15 Jan 2027. [8 October 2026: Claude Dashboards and Motion](/claude/whats-new/claude-dashboards-and-motion) Claude Dashboards (paid plans) and Claude Motion (Team and Enterprise) are in beta, and Docs, Slides and Design are out of beta. What it means for a company. [7 October 2026: Claude Haiku 5.5, cheaper Sonnet 5.5, and API credits on Team plans](/claude/whats-new/claude-haiku-5-5) Claude Haiku 5.5, released 7 October 2026, is Anthropic's cheapest and fastest model, about 75% cheaper to run than Haiku 4.5. What it means for a company. [28 September 2026: Sonnet 5.5 and the Sonnet 4.5 retirement](/claude/whats-new/claude-sonnet-5-5) Claude Sonnet 5.5, released 28 September 2026, is 30% faster than Sonnet 5, and Sonnet 4.5 retires from the API on 30 November 2026. How to migrate. [22 September 2026: Claude Opus 5.5, the new default for serious work](/claude/whats-new/claude-opus-5-5) Claude Opus 5.5, released 22 September 2026, performs at Fable 5.1 level on most work and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5. What it means for a company. [16 September 2026: Cowork and chat become one Claude](/claude/whats-new/claude-cowork-every-conversation) From 16 September 2026 Claude chat and Claude Cowork merge into one conversation that takes whole tasks and returns finished files. What it means for a company. [16 September 2026: Claude Docs, Slides and Design in any conversation](/claude/whats-new/claude-docs-slides-design) Claude Docs, Slides and Design work in any conversation. All three are on by default for Enterprise from 15 October 2026. What changed and what to do first. 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 drafted with Claude from those sources, then checked against them, figure by figure, before it goes up, and anything the check cannot confirm waits for a person at the firm to read it. 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 16 September and 8 October 2026, Anthropic merged Claude chat and Cowork, released Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5, launched Claude Docs, Slides and Design, and put Dashboards and Motion into beta. Each has its own post on this page. ### What is the latest Claude model? As of 30 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. Read next * [How will Claude affect my business?](/claude). The answer for a company, kept current with every release. * [AI usage policy](/guides/ai-usage-policy-investment-firms). The one page your people read, where the rules for each new feature belong. * [Prompt Engineering Workshop](/workshops). Your teams, on your own documents, using what shipped this month. ## 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. [hello@bythepeople.tech](mailto:hello@bythepeople.tech?subject=Claude%3A%20What's%20New) Subject line: Claude: What's New [Or book 30 minutes with Tim](https://calendly.com/timminer-1/chat-with-tim)