Anthropic Removes Opus 5.5 Fast Mode Waitlist, Keeps Separate Claude Code Billing

What happened

Anthropic has ended research preview and removed the waitlist for Opus 5.5 fast mode on the Claude Platform, offering the same model at up to 2.5x faster speeds. API pricing is $8 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens, twice the standard rate; Claude Code fast mode still uses separately billed extra usage credits. Fast mode is also available in Microsoft Foundry, with Google Cloud coming soon.

The story so far

Anthropic has ended the research preview and removed the waitlist for Opus 5.5 fast mode on the Claude Platform, making what it describes as the same model available at up to 2.5 times the speed. API access costs $8 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens, twice the standard Opus 5.5 rates. Fast mode is also available through Microsoft Foundry, with Google Cloud availability coming soon. In Claude Code, subscribers including Pro and Max users can enable fast mode with /fast, but its charges draw from separately purchased extra usage credits rather than their subscription allowance. Team and Enterprise users need an administrator to enable it first.

Keep reading

Trending now

1. 1Meta Releases Muse Spark Open With Mac and Cloud Support, Topping US Open-Weight Index
2. 2Google Launches Gemini 4 Argon Globally, Expands Paid Access as Benchmark Results Vary
3. 3OpenAI Updates GPT-6 Astra Pro in ChatGPT With Parallel Agents and Faster Responses
4. 4Meta’s New Business Terms Raise Dispute Over Website Crawling and AI Training Rights