Anthropic’s September 22, 2026 launch of Claude Opus 5.5 cut standard output token pricing 20% to $20 per million tokens from the $25 rate on Opus 5, with cache reads falling 60% to $0.20 per million. The update pairs the lower list prices with efficiency gains that Anthropic estimates deliver roughly 40% lower cost per typical agentic or coding workload, driven by reduced token usage and over 30% faster output generation. This positions Opus 5.5 competitively against lower-priced rivals such as OpenAI’s GPT-6 Sol while still trailing the ultra-premium Fable tier at $50. Batch discounts and prompt caching further compress effective rates, sustaining downward pressure on realized output costs through the remainder of 2026 amid ongoing industry price competition.