Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.8 with cheaper fast mode and Claude Code "dynamic workflows"
Claude Opus 4.8 (`claude-opus-4-8`) launched on May 28, 2026 at the same $5/$25 price as Opus 4.7. It improved agentic coding, computer use and honesty, and Anthropic said Mythos-class models would reach all customers within weeks. Fast mode (2.5x speed) became three times cheaper, and Claude Code gained 'dynamic workflows' that can fan out to hundreds of parallel subagents.
Key facts
- Released May 28, 2026; model id claude-opus-4-8; $5/$25 per 1M tokens; fast mode $10/$50
- Context 1M tokens on Claude API, Bedrock and Vertex AI (200K on Microsoft Foundry); 128K output
- Online-Mind2Web 84%; OSWorld-Verified 82.3% (Anthropic)
- Claude Code dynamic workflows (research preview) spawn hundreds of parallel subagents; effort slider added to claude.ai and Cowork
- Opus 4.8 later served as fallback model for Fable 5 / Opus 5.5 cyber classifier blocks
What happened
Testers found Opus 4.8 "more reliable and sharper in its judgement" on agentic tasks and more likely to flag uncertainty instead of making unsupported claims. The same day Anthropic announced its $65B Series H. The accompanying Claude Code video promoted /goal and /remote-control for long-running work.
Why it matters
Opus 4.8 was the last Opus 4.x release and a bridge to the Mythos-class releases in June. It is still used as the fallback model inside Anthropic's safeguard stack.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created
Videos (10)
Embrace long-running tasks with Opus 4.8 and Claude Code
Claude · 2026-05-28 · officialThis is an official promotional product video from Anthropic showcasing Claude Opus 4.8 within Claude Code. The video demonstrates how Claude Code can handle complex, long-running engineering tasks autonomously while allowing developers to monitor progress and resolve git conflicts remotely from a smartphone. -…
NEW Claude Sonnet 5 vs Opus 4.8! (Full Review)
AI Foundations · 2026-07-31 · reviewDrake from AI Foundations reviews Anthropic's newly released Claude Sonnet 5, comparing its benchmark results, pricing, and agentic coding capabilities directly against Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Sonnet 4.6. He pits Sonnet 5 against Opus 4.8 side by side inside Claude Code using the /goal command to build an…
Claude Fable 5: Better Than Opus 4.8?
Teacher's Tech · 2026-07-01 · communityJamie Keet from Teacher's Tech presents an independent hands-on evaluation of Anthropic's Claude Fable 5, comparing it head-to-head against Claude Opus 4.8. Through four practical business tests—analyzing charts in PDFs, auditing spreadsheet calculations, synthesizing multi-file launch memos, and testing domain…
Claude Opus 4.8 Full Breakdown & Testing (AI News You Can Use)
The AI Advantage · 2026-07-01 · reviewIgor from The AI Advantage breaks down the release of Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 model and its integration across Claude.ai, Claude Code, and the API. He analyzes benchmark comparisons against competing models, demonstrates Opus 4.8 generating an interactive design website and an SVG graphic, tests Claude Code's…
Claude Opus 4.8 actually blew my mind...
Alex Finn · 2026-06-01 · communityAlex Finn reviews and demonstrates the newly released Claude Opus 4.8 from Anthropic within Claude Code desktop. He analyzes the release notes, feature additions, pricing, and benchmark performance, then tests Opus 4.8 with his standard benchmark prompt generating a 3D first-person shooter web game. - [00:00] Intro…
Claude Opus 4.8 | First impressions
Arena AI · 2026-06-01 · reviewPeter Gostev, AI Capability Lead at Arena, reviews Anthropic's newly released Claude Opus 4.8 model. He examines Anthropic's reported benchmark metrics and release timeline before running extensive side-by-side evaluations across complex 3D Three.js scenes, interactive browser games, and front-end web applications on…
More videos (4)
- Claude Opus 4.8 Is HERE – Is THIS the Best Model Yet? Bijan Bowen · 2026-06-01
- Anthropic Just Dropped Claude Opus 4.8 (Full Breakdown) Brock Mesarich | AI for Non Techies · 2026-06-01
- Claude Opus 4.8: Here is Everything that Changed Prompt Engineering · 2026-06-01
- First Look at Claude Opus 4.8 Tonbi's AI Garage · 2026-06-01
All videos with Gemini's descriptions: videos · llms-full.txt
Related events
- Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.7, admits it trails the unreleased Mythos Preview ★★★
- Anthropic releases Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 — first generally available Mythos-class model ★★★★★
- Anthropic raises $65B Series H at $965B valuation, passing OpenAI ★★★★
- Code with Claude 2026: Managed Agents "dreaming", doubled Claude Code limits and SpaceX Colossus 1 compute deal ★★★
- Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 5, "the most agentic Sonnet yet" ★★★
- Anthropic releases Claude Opus 5 — near-Fable-5 intelligence at half the price ★★★★
Sources (5)
- officialIntroducing Claude Opus 4.8 (Anthropic)
- discussionSimon Willison: Claude Opus 4.8 — a modest but tangible improvement
- pressMacRumors: Opus 4.8 with gains in coding and honesty
- pressAxios: Anthropic releases new model, Opus 4.8
- press9to5Mac: Anthropic upgrades Claude with Opus 4.8
id: 2026-05-28-claude-opus-4-8 · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline