Claude is Anthropic’s family of AI assistants and large language models. The first public Claude release arrived on March 14, 2023, and the product has since grown into model families for chat, coding, reasoning, agents, vision, long-context work, and enterprise workflows.
The newest generally available Claude model in this timeline is Claude Fable 5, released on June 9, 2026. It follows Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude Haiku 4.5, and the Claude 4 family.
This timeline tracks confirmed Claude model release dates, Claude Code milestones, developer platform updates, and product changes that shaped Claude from its first public assistant release to its current model lineup.
Last Updated: June 09, 2026
Quick Claude Release Answers
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| When did Claude first come out? | Claude first came out on March 14, 2023. |
| When was Claude 2 released? | Claude 2 was released on July 11, 2023. |
| When did Claude 3 launch? | The Claude 3 family launched on March 4, 2024. Claude 3 Haiku followed on March 13, 2024. |
| When did Claude Code come out? | Claude Code was introduced with Claude 3.7 Sonnet on February 24, 2025. |
| What is the newest Claude model? | Claude Fable 5 is the newest generally available Claude model listed here. Claude Mythos 5 launched the same day for restricted access. |
| When was Claude Opus 4.8 released? | Claude Opus 4.8 was released on May 28, 2026. |
Claude Model Release Dates
| Model or Product | Release Date | Key Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Fable 5 | June 9, 2026 | Mythos-class Claude model for general use, with safeguards that route some sensitive requests to Claude Opus 4.8. |
| Claude Mythos 5 | June 9, 2026 | Same underlying model as Fable 5, with some safeguards lifted for restricted Project Glasswing and trusted-access use. |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | May 28, 2026 | Opus upgrade for coding, agentic tasks, professional work, and more reliable long-running collaboration. |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | April 16, 2026 | Opus upgrade for advanced software engineering, complex multi-step tasks, high-resolution vision, and professional work. |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | February 17, 2026 | Sonnet upgrade for coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work, and design. |
| Claude Opus 4.6 | February 5, 2026 | Opus upgrade with stronger planning, code review, debugging, long-running agent reliability, and 1M context in beta. |
| Claude Opus 4.5 | November 24, 2025 | High-intelligence Opus model for coding, agents, computer use, spreadsheets, and long-running chats. |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | October 16, 2025 | Lightweight Claude 4.5 model for faster and lower-cost responses. |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | September 29, 2025 | Sonnet model for agents, coding, and computer use. |
| Claude Opus 4.1 | August 5, 2025 | Opus 4 upgrade for coding precision and agentic tasks. |
| Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 | May 22, 2025 | Claude 4 generation for coding, advanced reasoning, and AI agent workflows. |
| Claude Code | February 24, 2025 | Agentic coding tool released as a research preview with Claude 3.7 Sonnet. |
| Claude 3.7 Sonnet | February 24, 2025 | Hybrid reasoning model with standard and extended thinking modes. |
| Claude 3.5 Haiku | October 22, 2024 | Faster, lower-cost model in the Claude 3.5 family. |
| Upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet | October 22, 2024 | Improved Claude 3.5 Sonnet with stronger coding and computer use in public beta. |
| Claude 3.5 Sonnet | June 21, 2024 | First Claude 3.5 model, with stronger reasoning, coding, visual understanding, and Artifacts. |
| Claude 3 Haiku | March 13, 2024 | Fast Claude 3 model for lower-latency enterprise and API workloads. |
| Claude 3 | March 4, 2024 | Model family with Claude 3 Haiku, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Claude 3 Opus. |
| Claude 2.1 | November 21, 2023 | 200K context window, lower hallucination rates, system prompts, and early tool use. |
| Claude 2 | July 11, 2023 | Improved performance, longer responses, API access, and a public beta web experience. |
| Claude 1 | March 14, 2023 | First public Claude assistant from Anthropic. |
Current Claude Model Lineup
Claude Fable 5 is the newest generally available Claude model in this timeline. It belongs to the Mythos-class tier, which sits above the Opus class in Anthropic’s current model hierarchy.
Fable 5 is built for difficult coding, long-horizon agent work, knowledge work, vision tasks, and complex research-style workflows. It includes safeguards that route some cybersecurity, biology, chemistry, and distillation requests to Claude Opus 4.8 instead.
Claude Mythos 5 launched on the same day as Fable 5, but it has restricted access. It uses the same underlying model as Fable 5 with some safeguards lifted for approved cyberdefense and trusted-access programs.
Claude Opus 4.8 remains a major Opus-class model for coding, agent workflows, professional work, and long-running collaboration. It also acts as the fallback model for some Fable 5 requests that trigger safeguards.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 remains important for coding, agents, computer use, long-context reasoning, knowledge work, and design tasks at a lower cost than Opus-class models. Claude Haiku 4.5 remains the lightweight option in the Claude 4.5 generation.
Claude Timeline
| Date | Milestone/Key Moment |
|---|---|
| June 2026 | Anthropic introduced Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5. Fable 5 became the newest generally available Claude model, while Mythos 5 launched for restricted trusted-access use. |
| May 2026 | Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 4.8, an Opus upgrade for coding, agentic tasks, professional work, and long-running collaboration. |
| May 2026 | Claude Code introduced dynamic workflows in research preview. Claude can plan large tasks, run many parallel subagents, verify outputs, and report results back to the user. |
| May 2026 | Claude added effort control in claude.ai and Cowork, which gives users a way to choose how much effort Claude puts into a response. |
| May 2026 | The Messages API added support for system entries inside the messages array, so developers can update Claude’s instructions mid-task. |
| May 2026 | Anthropic announced Claude for Small Business, a package of connectors and ready-to-run workflows for small business tasks. |
| May 2026 | The Claude Platform on AWS became available. Claude also remained available on Amazon Bedrock, where AWS is the data processor. Claude Platform on AWS |
| May 2026 | Agent View was added to Claude Code. |
| May 2026 | Claude Security launched to scan codebases, validate findings, and suggest patches for review. |
| April 2026 | Anthropic added connectors for creative work, including Blender, Autodesk, Adobe, Ableton, Splice, and more. |
| April 2026 | Claude added connectors for everyday apps, including AllTrails, Instacart, Audible, TripAdvisor, Intuit TurboTax, and more. Claude connectors |
| April 2026 | Claude for Word became available on Pro and Max plans. |
| April 2026 | Anthropic announced Claude Design, an Anthropic Labs product for designs, prototypes, slides, one-pagers, and related visual work. |
| April 2026 | Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 4.7, an Opus upgrade for advanced software engineering, complex workflows, high-resolution vision, and professional work. |
| April 2026 | Anthropic announced Routines in Claude Code, which can run on a schedule, from an API call, or in response to an event. |
| April 2026 | Anthropic redesigned Claude Code on desktop with side-by-side sessions and a sidebar for session management. |
| April 2026 | Anthropic announced an Advisor tool on the Claude Platform. |
| April 2026 | Claude Cowork became generally available on paid plans. |
| April 2026 | Anthropic introduced Claude Managed Agents, a suite of APIs for building and deploying cloud-hosted agents. |
| March 2026 | Anthropic introduced auto mode in Claude Code, a permissions mode where Claude makes permission decisions with safeguards. |
| March 2026 | Claude gained the ability to use a computer to complete tasks. |
| March 2026 | Claude added support for interactive charts, diagrams, and visualizations. |
| February 2026 | Anthropic introduced Claude Sonnet 4.6, a broad upgrade across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work, and design. |
| February 2026 | Anthropic announced Claude Opus 4.6, with stronger planning, code review, debugging, long-running agent reliability, and 1M context in beta. |
| January 2026 | Web connectors became available across Claude, Claude Desktop, and Claude Mobile for paid plans and some free-plan users. |
| January 2026 | Anthropic introduced Cowork, a file-based work surface that gives Claude access to a chosen local folder. |
| January 2026 | Anthropic announced Claude for Healthcare, a set of HIPAA-ready tools and resources for healthcare use cases. |
| November 2025 | Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.5 for coding, agents, computer use, spreadsheets, and long-running chats. |
| October 2025 | Claude for Excel entered beta as a research preview. Claude for Excel |
| October 2025 | Claude Desktop became generally available. Claude Desktop |
| October 2025 | Claude Code became available on the web for Pro and Max users. Claude Code on the web |
| October 2025 | Claude Skills launched as packaged instructions, resources, and workflows for Claude. Claude Skills |
| October 2025 | Anthropic released Claude Haiku 4.5 as a fast, lower-cost model in the Claude 4.5 generation. |
| September 2025 | Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.5 for agents, coding, and computer use. |
| September 2025 | Claude added memory for Team and Enterprise users and incognito chats for all users. Claude memory |
| September 2025 | Claude added file creation and editing. File creation and editing |
| August 2025 | Claude Code added new admin controls for business plans. Claude Code on Team and Enterprise |
| August 2025 | Claude Sonnet 4 added support for a 1M token context window. 1M context |
| August 2025 | Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.1 as an upgrade for coding and agentic tasks. Claude Opus 4.1 |
| July 2025 | Claude added the ability to draft and send emails, messages, and calendar invites from the Claude app. |
| July 2025 | Claude Code added subagents for specialized assistants inside Claude Code. Claude Code subagents |
| June 2025 | Local MCP servers gained one-click installation on Claude Desktop. |
| June 2025 | Claude gained the ability to build, host, and share interactive AI-powered apps inside Claude. Claude-powered Artifacts |
| June 2025 | Claude Code added support for remote MCP servers. |
| June 2025 | Projects on Claude added support for 10 times more content. |
| June 2025 | Claude Code became available as part of the Pro plan. |
| May 2025 | Web search became available to all Claude users. |
| May 2025 | Anthropic began rolling out voice mode in beta on mobile. |
| May 2025 | Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 for coding, advanced reasoning, and AI agent workflows. |
| May 2025 | Research became available on mobile. |
| May 2025 | Anthropic announced the Web Search API for developers. Web Search API |
| May 2025 | Anthropic announced Integrations and expanded Research. Claude Integrations |
| April 2025 | Anthropic introduced Research and a Google Workspace integration for Claude. Claude Research |
| April 2025 | Anthropic introduced the Max plan for heavier Claude usage. Claude Max plan |
| April 2025 | Anthropic released Claude for Education. |
| March 2025 | Claude added web search. Claude web search |
| February 2025 | Anthropic introduced Claude Code in limited research preview. Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Code |
| February 2025 | Anthropic announced Claude 3.7 Sonnet, a hybrid reasoning model. Claude 3.7 Sonnet |
| November 2024 | Anthropic introduced Styles for Claude. Claude Styles |
| November 2024 | Anthropic introduced the Model Context Protocol. Model Context Protocol |
| November 2024 | Claude added prompt improvement and example management in the Anthropic Console. Prompt improver |
| November 2024 | Claude 3.5 Haiku became available on the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud Vertex AI. |
| October 2024 | Anthropic released Claude for Desktop. Claude Desktop |
| October 2024 | Anthropic introduced the analysis tool in Claude.ai. Analysis tool |
| October 2024 | Anthropic announced an upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3.5 Haiku, and computer use in public beta. Claude 3.5 models and computer use |
| October 2024 | Anthropic launched the Message Batches API. Message Batches API |
| August 2024 | Artifacts became generally available. Artifacts |
| August 2024 | Anthropic published system prompts for Claude models. Claude system prompts |
| August 2024 | Anthropic announced prompt caching on the Claude API. Prompt caching |
| July 2024 | Anthropic released the Claude Android app. Claude Android app |
| June 2024 | Claude 3.5 Sonnet launched as the first Claude 3.5 model. Claude 3.5 Sonnet |
| May 2024 | Tool use became generally available across the Claude 3 model family on the Anthropic Messages API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud Vertex AI. Tool use GA |
| March 2024 | Anthropic launched the Claude 3 family with Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus. Claude 3 family |
| November 2023 | Anthropic introduced Claude 2.1 with a 200K token context window, lower hallucination rates, system prompts, and early tool use. Claude 2.1 |
| September 2023 | Anthropic introduced Claude Pro for the Claude.ai chat experience. Claude Pro |
| August 2023 | Anthropic introduced Claude Instant 1.2. Claude Instant 1.2 |
| July 2023 | Anthropic introduced Claude 2. Claude 2 |
| May 2023 | Claude’s context window expanded from 9K tokens to 100K tokens. 100K context windows |
| March 2023 | Anthropic introduced Claude. Introducing Claude |
| February 2023 | Anthropic raised Series B funding to build steerable, interpretable, and reliable AI systems. Series B announcement |
| May 2021 | Anthropic raised $124 million to build more reliable general AI systems. Anthropic funding announcement |
Claude Generations Explained
Claude 1 established Anthropic’s public assistant experience in 2023. It focused on conversation, writing, summarization, Q&A, coding, and text processing.
Claude 2 expanded the model’s practical use with longer responses, stronger reasoning, better coding performance, API access, and a larger context window. Claude 2.1 then moved the product toward enterprise workflows with a 200K context window, system prompts, and early tool use.
Claude 3 introduced a clear model family: Haiku for speed, Sonnet for balanced performance, and Opus for the most demanding tasks. This generation also brought stronger vision capabilities and better accuracy.
Claude 3.5 improved the Sonnet and Haiku lines. Claude 3.5 Sonnet became a major model for coding, reasoning, visual tasks, Artifacts, and computer use. Claude 3.5 Haiku added a faster option for lower-cost workloads.
Claude 3.7 Sonnet introduced hybrid reasoning. It gave Claude a standard response mode and an extended thinking mode for tasks that benefit from deeper reasoning.
Claude 4 moved Claude deeper into coding, agents, advanced reasoning, and tool-based work. Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 became the foundation for later 4.x model upgrades.
Claude 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, and 4.8 refined Claude for real work across software engineering, long-running agents, computer use, design, spreadsheets, file work, and professional analysis.
Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 introduced the Mythos-class tier in June 2026. Fable 5 brings Mythos-class capability to general use with safeguards. Mythos 5 remains restricted to approved programs and trusted-access use.
Claude Model Names: Haiku, Sonnet, Opus, Fable, and Mythos
| Claude Model Line | What It Means | Typical Role |
|---|---|---|
| Haiku | Smallest named Claude model line in recent families. | Fast responses, high-volume tasks, lower-cost workflows. |
| Sonnet | Middle Claude model line. | Balanced coding, reasoning, writing, agents, and knowledge work. |
| Opus | Top mainstream Claude model line before Fable and Mythos. | Hard coding tasks, agentic work, long-running workflows, and professional analysis. |
| Fable | Generally available Mythos-class model line. | Complex long-horizon tasks with safeguards for general use. |
| Mythos | Restricted Mythos-class model line. | Approved cyberdefense, research, and trusted-access programs. |
Major Product Milestones
Claude is no longer only a chatbot. The product timeline shows a shift toward work surfaces, developer tools, coding agents, connectors, managed agents, and long-running workflows.
Claude Code turned Claude into a coding agent that can work with repositories, run commands, edit files, and help with implementation work. Later updates added remote MCP server support, web access, subagents, routines, dynamic workflows, desktop sessions, and broader plan access.
The Model Context Protocol became one of Anthropic’s most important ecosystem moves. MCP gives AI assistants a standard way to connect with tools, files, services, and business systems. It also supports the broader agent workflow around Claude Code and other AI coding tools.
Claude Desktop, Claude for Excel, Claude for Word, web connectors, and Claude Cowork moved Claude closer to everyday work. These releases connect Claude with documents, spreadsheets, local files, business tools, and repeatable workflows.
Claude Design, Managed Agents, Routines, effort control, dynamic workflows, Fable 5, and Mythos 5 show the 2026 direction of the product. Claude is moving toward structured agent work, visual creation, scheduled automation, enterprise-grade deployment, and larger delegated tasks.
How Claude Changed Over Time
Claude’s early releases focused on safer chat, longer context, and general assistant tasks. The middle period focused on model families, better accuracy, vision, tool use, and stronger coding. The recent releases focus on agents, computer use, long-context workflows, enterprise integrations, and product-specific assistants.
The clearest trend is that Claude has moved from single-turn chat toward delegated work. Newer Claude releases handle tasks that involve files, tools, codebases, apps, images, documents, connectors, safeguards, and long-running plans.
FAQs
Q: When did Claude first come out?
A: Claude first came out on March 14, 2023. The first public release introduced Claude as an AI assistant for conversation, summarization, writing, Q&A, coding, and text processing.
Q: What is the newest Claude model?
A: Claude Fable 5 is the newest generally available Claude model in this timeline. It was released on June 9, 2026. Claude Mythos 5 launched on the same day with restricted access.
Q: Is Claude Fable 5 the same as Claude Mythos 5?
A: Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 use the same underlying model. Fable 5 has safeguards for general use. Mythos 5 has some safeguards lifted and remains limited to approved trusted-access programs.
Q: When did Claude Code come out?
A: Claude Code came out on February 24, 2025, as a limited research preview with Claude 3.7 Sonnet. It later expanded with MCP support, subagents, web access, routines, and dynamic workflows.
Q: What is the difference between Claude Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus?
A: Haiku is the faster and lighter model line, Sonnet is the balanced model line, and Opus is the higher-capability mainstream model line for harder work. Fable and Mythos sit above Opus in the current Claude hierarchy.
Q: Is there a fixed release date for the next Claude model?
A: There is no fixed public schedule for the next Claude model. This page records confirmed releases and major product milestones rather than predictions or rumors.
Q: Does this timeline include Claude product updates?
A: Yes. The timeline includes major Claude model launches, Claude Code updates, MCP, Claude Desktop, Artifacts, web search, connectors, Cowork, Managed Agents, and other product milestones.
Related Resources
- Timeline Of Meta AI
- Timeline Of Google AI
- Timeline Of ChatGPT & OpenAI
- Claude API Pricing
- The Ultimate Claude Code Resource List
- Claude Code Commands Cheat Sheet
- Model Context Protocol
- View the Anthropic Claude Timeline on GitHub
