Prime Highlights
- Claude Haiku 4.5 delivers performance similar to Sonnet 4 while being one-third the cost and over twice as fast, according to Anthropic.
- Anthropic positions Haiku 4.5 as an ideal lightweight model for AI agents and production environments, balancing intelligence, speed, and efficiency.
Key Facts
- Benchmark tests show Haiku 4.5 scoring 73% on SWE-Bench verified and 41% on Terminal-Bench, putting it close to Sonnet 4, GPT-5, and Gemini 2.5.
- Haiku 4.5 is now available to all users on free Anthropic plans, enabling low-latency applications like software development tools and parallel agent systems.
Background
On Wednesday, AI research company Anthropic released Claude Haiku 4.5, the latest version of its smallest AI model. The company says Haiku 4.5 delivers similar performance to Sonnet 4 while being one-third the cost and more than twice as fast, according to a company blog post.
Benchmark tests show Haiku scoring 73% on SWE-Bench verified and 41% on Terminal-Bench, slightly below Sonnet 4.5 but comparable to Sonnet 4, GPT-5, and Gemini 2.5. Haiku also shows strong results in tool use, computer tasks, and visual reasoning.
Haiku 4.5 is immediately available for all free Anthropic plans, making it ideal for AI products that need high capability with lower server loads. Its lightweight design allows multiple Haiku agents to work in parallel or alongside larger models.
Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger said Haiku opens new possibilities in production environments. “Sonnet manages complex planning, while Haiku-powered sub-agents perform tasks quickly,” Krieger said. “We provide users with a complete agent toolbox that balances intelligence, speed, and cost for various tasks.”
The model is expected to be useful in software development tools, where low latency is critical. Zencoder CEO Andrew Filev noted that Haiku 4.5 “unlocks an entirely new set of use cases” for developers.
This launch follows recent releases by Anthropic, including Sonnet 4.5 two weeks ago and Opus 4.1 two months ago. The previous Haiku model was released in October 2024 and continues updates in Anthropic’s AI lineup.
