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Model releaseFrontierUSConfirmed

Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6 as the default for free users

See how this story connects

Source: Anthropic: Introducing Claude Sonnet 4.6

Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.6, an upgrade across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning and agent planning with a 1-million-token context window in beta, and made it the default model for Free and Pro plans in claude.ai and Claude Cowork. Pricing stayed at $3 and $15 per million input and output tokens.

Why it matters

Free Claude users moved to a stronger default model at no cost, and developers kept Sonnet 4.5 pricing.

When
17 Feb 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0156
Who
Anthropic

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from Anthropic. Checked against the source on 9 Oct 2026.

Read the original at Anthropic

Source copy: download the page as saved on 18 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Next stop on this Storyline: Led toAnthropic releases Claude Sonnet 5, built for autonomous agent work

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0156: “Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6 as the default for free users.” wheresthe.ai, 17 Feb 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/anthropic-claude-sonnet-4-6-release-2026-02/ (source: Anthropic: Introducing Claude Sonnet 4.6).

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