Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6, continuing breakneck pace of AI model releases

Anthropic on Tuesday rolled out Claude Sonnet 4.6, its second major artificial intelligence model launch in less than two weeks.

The startup said Claude Sonnet 4.6 is better at using computers, coding, design, completing knowledge work tasks and processing large amounts of data.

For Anthropic’s free users and paid Pro users, the model will now serve as the default within its Claude chatbot and its Claude Cowork productivity tool.

Anthropic is in the throes of a fierce competition with rivals like OpenAI and Google, and the launch of Claude Sonnet 4.6 serves as the latest example of the breakneck pace of development that’s required to keep pace in the AI industry.

Anthropic launched another model, Claude Opus 4.6, just 12 days ago.

“Performance that would have previously required reaching for an Opus-class model — including on real world, economically valuable office tasks — is now available with Sonnet 4.6,” Anthropic said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Anthropic’s recent advancements have also accelerated a massive sell-off in software stocks in recent months. Investors are growing worried about AI’s potential to disrupt those businesses, and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) has plunged more than 20% year to date.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 likely won’t ease those concerns, as Anthropic said the model will bring “much-improved coding skills” to more of its users. The model is more consistent with coding and is better at following coding instructions, Anthropic said.

Anthropic was founded by a group of former OpenAI researchers and executives in 2021, and it’s best known for developing a family of AI models called Claude. 

The company assigns new numbers to the models as they advance across generations, but the largest model in the family is typically called Opus, the midsize model is called Sonnet and the smallest model is Haiku.

Anthropic said Thursday that it closed a $30 billion funding round at a $380 billion post-money valuation, more than double what it was worth in September.

OpenAI is also engaged in fundraising talks with investors for a round that could close at around $100 billion, as CNBC previously reported.

WATCH: A once quiet rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic is heating up