Claude Opus 5.5

by AnthropicassistantClaude Pro, Max and Team plans; API $4 / $20 per million input / output tokens

Claude Opus 5.5 is Anthropic's newest Opus, released September 22, 2026: cheaper and faster than Opus 5, with a big step up on agentic coding. In Blender it writes Blender Python or drives your scene over MCP — and it will enter the arena as its own competitor, so its 3D results can be judged blind against Opus 5, GPT-6 Astra and the rest.

Last reviewed: 2026-09-22

Not benchmarked yet — profile only. Claude Opus 5.5 has no entrant in Season 2, so there are no outputs, ratings or ballots to show. How tools enter the arena →

What is Claude Opus 5.5?

Claude Opus 5.5 is Anthropic's Opus model released on September 22, 2026, succeeding Claude Opus 5. Anthropic positions it for long-running agentic coding and knowledge work, and now recommends it as the starting model for most workloads. It has a 1M-token context window, up to 128K output tokens, adaptive thinking that is always on (default effort: medium) and a reliable knowledge cutoff of June 2026.

It is cheaper than the model it replaces: $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens on the API, against $5 and $25 for Opus 5, and Anthropic says it generates output more than 30% faster. It is available in the Claude apps on Pro, Max and Team plans, and through the Claude API (model ID claude-opus-5-5), Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry.

Like every Claude model it has no mesh generator behind it: for 3D work it either writes Blender Python (bpy) that you run in the Scripting workspace, or drives a live scene through an MCP connection to Blender. It has its own profile, separate from the Claude page, because the arena competes per-model, not per-brand — the same way GPT-6 Astra is tracked apart from ChatGPT.

Claude Opus 5.5 at a glance

Released: September 22, 2026
API model ID: claude-opus-5-5 (same ID on Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry and Claude Platform on AWS; anthropic.claude-opus-5-5 on Amazon Bedrock)
Price: $4 per million input tokens, $20 per million output tokens; batch requests 50% off; fast mode $8 / $40 for up to 2.5× faster output
Context window: 1M tokens; max output: 128K tokens
Thinking: adaptive, always on; default effort medium, adjustable from low to max
Reliable knowledge cutoff: June 2026
Apps: Claude Pro, Max and Team plans

Claude Opus 5.5 vs Opus 5

In Anthropic's launch results, Opus 5.5 leads Opus 5 on the three agentic-coding benchmarks it names — Terminal-Bench 4.0 66.4% vs 52.3%, FrontierCode v1.1 54.4% vs 48.0%, CursorBench 4.0 57.8% vs 46.6% — while costing 20% less per token ($4 / $20 against $5 / $25) and generating output more than 30% faster.

None of those benchmarks measure 3D. Opus 5 has a full arena record: one Blender Python script for each of the twelve prompts, finishing Season 1 inside the four-way technical draw for first across 1,800 season-wide ballots, and those outputs are still competing in Season 2. Opus 5.5 will run the same twelve prompts under the same rule — one script, executed once in headless Blender 5.1, no retries, no cleanup — and the two will be listed as separate entries, so the blind votes decide whether the coding gains show up in the geometry.

Arena status: outputs coming

Claude Opus 5.5 is not in the voting pool yet. When its run is published, all twelve outputs appear on this page exactly as generated, including any prompt where the script fails, and it enters blind voting at the Glicko-2 default rating like every other competitor.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

Strength:Big jump on agentic coding in Anthropic's published results — Terminal-Bench 4.0 at 66.4% against 52.3% for Opus 5 — which is the skill a scripted or MCP-driven Blender build leans on
Strength:Cheaper and faster than Opus 5: $4 / $20 per million tokens and, per Anthropic, over 30% faster output
Strength:1M-token context and 128K output tokens, room for long bpy scripts and long scene sessions
Strength:Works in the existing Claude + Blender setups — blender-mcp, Claude Desktop, Claude Code — by selecting the model; custom API integrations should check Anthropic's migration notes first

Limitations

Limitation:No arena outputs or blind-vote record yet — Anthropic's benchmarks measure coding and agents, not 3D quality, so nothing here is a claim about how well it models
Limitation:Not a mesh generator: geometry comes from Blender Python code rather than a generative 3D model
Limitation:Default effort is medium; raising it costs more time and tokens
Limitation:Anthropic lists breaking API changes from Opus 5 (for example around manual thinking settings), so custom scripts calling the API directly may need updating

How to use Claude Opus 5.5 with Blender

Connect Claude to Blender the usual way — the blender-mcp add-on with Claude Desktop or Claude Code — and select Claude Opus 5.5 as the model (API ID claude-opus-5-5). Or ask it for a bpy script and run it in Blender's Scripting workspace. If you call the API from your own tooling, check Anthropic's Opus 5.5 migration notes for breaking changes.

Best for: 3D quality not yet assessed. The workflows it slots into are the usual Claude ones — MCP-driven scene work and bpy scripting — at a lower price than Opus 5; the arena run will show how well it models.

FAQ

Claude Opus 5.5 & Blender: FAQ

The questions people search for alongside Claude Opus 5.5 and Blender, answered from the setup steps and the benchmark record above.

01When was Claude Opus 5.5 released?

Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 on September 22, 2026. It is available in the Claude apps on Pro, Max and Team plans, and through the Claude API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry.

02How much does Claude Opus 5.5 cost?

On the API, $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens — down from $5 and $25 for Opus 5. Batch requests are 50% off, and fast mode costs $8 / $40 per million tokens.

03Can Claude Opus 5.5 use Blender?

Yes, the same way other Claude models do: through an MCP connection it can build and edit your scene, and without one it writes Blender Python you run in the Scripting workspace. The setup steps are on the Claude + Blender guide.

04Is Claude Opus 5.5 better than Opus 5 at 3D modelling?

Not assessed yet. It leads Opus 5 on the coding benchmarks Anthropic published (Terminal-Bench 4.0, FrontierCode, CursorBench), but none of those measure 3D. Its arena run will use the same twelve prompts and one-shot rule as Opus 5's, and the blind votes will answer it.