TL;DRClaude Sonnet 5 is designed to tackle multi-step tasks more independently, with support for web browsing, planning, and developer tools.The new model promises near-Opus 4.8 performance at a lower cost, while improving on Sonnet 4.6 in reasoning, reliability, and safety.Sonnet 5 is now the default model for Claude’s Free and Pro users, with built-in cyber safety protections enabled.AI models are arriving at such a rapid pace that it’s becoming difficult to keep track of who’s leading the race. Just when you’ve gotten used to one, another arrives promising to be smarter, faster, and cheaper. The latest entrant is Claude Sonnet 5, which aims to deliver near-flagship AI performance without the premium price tag.That matters because most people don’t care about benchmark scores alone. They care about whether an AI can actually finish a task without constant hand-holding. Sonnet 5 is built with that in mind. Anthropic calls it “the most agentic Sonnet model yet.”