May 2026 archive
May logged 1 tracked event, not marked major. Claude Opus 4.8 arrived on 2026-05-28, priced level with its predecessor Opus 4.5 at $5 in / $25 out per million tokens.
Every AI model release in May 2026
- 2026-05-28Release
Claude Opus 4.8 launches
Same headline price as Opus 4.5 ($5/$25 per 1M tokens) — Anthropic held the line on cost while adding an effort-control dial. No longer Anthropic's most capable model as of June 2026, but still the reference point most comparisons use.
Since then: Opus 4.8 became a previous version when Claude Opus 5 shipped on 2026-07-24, at the identical $5/$25 price. Anthropic's own schedule puts formal retirement no earlier than 2027-05-28, and the model still serves as Claude Fable 5's automatic fallback when its safety classifier refuses a request.
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