Anthropic's claude opus 5.5 leaps ahead in development, targets gpt-6 with competitive pricing

Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5, codenamed 'claude-wafer-eap,' is currently in internal testing, with reports suggesting it could be released as early as Tuesday. The jump from version 5.2 to 5.5 indicates a strategic move to directly compete with GPT-6. The pricing for Opus 5.5 has been revealed, with input costs at $4 per million tokens and output at $20 per million tokens, representing a 20% reduction compared to the current Opus 5 rates. The significant optimization of the caching mechanism is highlighted as a key factor, with caching read costs dropping to $0.2 per million tokens. Developer Harshith, participating in internal testing, noted that Opus 5.5 outperforms previous versions, generating detailed 3D models of a Waymo self-driving car at half the cost of Opus 5. Another developer created a web-based 3D car viewer using Three.js and a 'Walle robot' control console, showcasing solid UI and mechanical integration. Fable 5.2 also received updates, with developer Pankaj Kumar noting a quiet shift from 5.1 to 5.2. The new version is said to have 3D generation capabilities that match or exceed those of Astra, generating detailed environments and interactive elements using native JavaScript.