Anthropic, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research company, developed Claude as its flagship large language model.
This timeline tracks Claude’s journey from its inception to its current state, highlighting major releases and developments.
Last Updated: Nov 24, 2025
Claude Release Dates
| Version | Release Date | Key Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Claude 1 | Mar 14, 2023 | First public model by Anthropic. |
| Claude 2 | Jul 11, 2023 | Improved performance and longer responses and can be accessed via API. |
| Claude 3 | Mar 4, 2024 | Features three models: Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus. |
| Claude 3.5 | Jun 21, 2024 | Enhanced speed and accuracy. |
| Claude Code | Feb 25, 2025 | The first agentic coding too |
| Claude 4 | May 23, 2025 | New multimodal features and deeper context. |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Sep 30, 2025 | The best model in the world for agents, coding, and computer use. |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Oct 16, 2025 | Latest lightweight model with faster responses. |
| Claude Opus 4.5 | Nov 24, 2025 | Intelligent, efficient, and the best model in the world for coding, agents, and computer use. |
Claude Timeline
| Date | Milestone/Key Moment |
|---|---|
| Nov. 2025 | Anthropic dropped Opus 4.5. Best in class for coding and agents, plus big improvements for spreadsheets and long-running chats. This is the update professional workflows needed. Learn More |
| Oct. 2025 | Claude for Excel has been released. Claude understands your entire workbook—from nested formulas to multiple tab dependencies. Get explanations with cell-level citations, and update assumptions while preserving formulas. Now in beta as a research preview. Learn More |
| Oct. 2025 | Claude Desktop is now generally available. New on Mac: Capture screenshots, click windows to share context, and press Caps Lock to talk to Claude aloud. Download Here |
| Oct. 2025 | Claude Code is now available right on the web for Pro/Max users. You can connect your GitHub, describe the routine fix or backend change you need, and Claude handles it in an isolated sandbox without you touching your terminal. Learn More |
| Oct. 2025 | Claude can now use Skills. Skills are packaged instructions that teach Claude your way of working. Learn More |
| Oct. 2025 | Anthropic released Claude Haiku 4.5: their latest small model. This model delivers Sonnet 4-level coding and agent performance for 1/3 the cost and twice the speed. View API Pricing |
| Sep. 2025 | Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.5: their best model in the world for agents, coding, and computer use. |
| Sep. 2025 | Anthropic launched a research preview of Imagine with Claude, where Claude generates software live. Seriously, nothing is pre-coded or set up. Try it Now |
| Sep. 2025 | Claude’s rolling out Memory to Team & Enterprise plans starting today. They’re also introducing incognito chats for all users. Learn More |
| Sep. 2025 | Anthropic just added the web fetch tool to the Claude API. Learn More |
| Sep. 2025 | Claude can now create and edit files. Learn More |
| Sep. 2025 | Claude can now reference past chats, so you can easily pick up from where you left off. |
| Aug. 2025 | Claude Code and new admin controls for business plans. Learn More |
| Aug. 2025 | Claude Sonnet 4 now supports 1M tokens of context. Learn More |
| Aug. 2025 | Anthropic just dropped Claude Opus 4.1, an upgrade to their most powerful model that’s now even better at coding and reasoning. Learn More |
| July. 2025 | You can now draft and send emails, messages, and calendar invites directly from the Claude app. |
| July. 2025 | Anthropic just rolled out Sub agents for Claude Code, which lets you create specialized AI assistants within Claude Code for specific tasks. Learn More |
| June. 2025 | Local MCP servers can now be installed with one click on Claude Desktop. |
| June. 2025 | Claude now lets you build, host, and share interactive AI-powered apps directly within the Claude app. Learn More |
| June. 2025 | Claude Code can now connect to remote MCP servers. |
| June. 2025 | Projects on Claude now support 10x more content. |
| June. 2025 | Claude Code is now available as part of the Pro plan. |
| May. 2025 | Web search is now available to all Claude users. |
| May. 2025 | Anthropic is rolling out voice mode in beta on mobile. |
| May. 2025 | Anthropic just launched Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, setting new standards for coding, advanced reasoning, and AI agents. Here’s what’s new with these models: 🚀 Claude Opus 4: This is their top-tier coding model, great for complex, long-running tasks and AI agent workflows. ✨ Claude Sonnet 4: A big improvement over Sonnet 3.7, it’s better at coding and reasoning, and follows instructions more precisely. 🧠 Extended Thinking with Tool Use (beta): Both models can now use tools while they “think” through a problem, helping them get better answers. 💾 New Model Capabilities: With local file access, these models can now remember key facts from conversations in “memory files,” so they learn over time. They also support parallel tool use and follow instructions better. 🛠️ New API Capabilities: Anthropic is adding four new tools to their API for developers to build more powerful AI agents: a code execution tool, MCP connector, Files API, and prompt caching for up to an hour. ⚡ Priority Tier: You can now get guaranteed API capacity for when you need it most. |
| May. 2025 | Research is now available on mobile. Claude can research across the web and Google Workspace, delivering comprehensive reports complete with citations from hundreds of sources. |
| May. 2025 | Anthropic announced Web Search API. Developers can now augment Claude’s comprehensive knowledge with up-to-date data. Blog Post |
| May. 2025 | Anthropic announced Integrations, a new way to connect your apps and tools to Claude. They’re also expanding Claude’s Research capabilities with an advanced mode that searches the web, your Google Workspace, and now your Integrations too. Blog Post |
| Apr. 2025 | Anthropic introduced two new capabilities — Research and a Google Workspace integration that connects your email, calendar, and documents to Claude. With Research, Claude can search across both your internal work context and the web to help you make decisions and take action faster than before. Blog Post |
| Apr. 2025 | Anthropic just introduced the Max plan—designed for those who collaborate with Claude extensively and need expanded access for their most important work. Blog Post |
| Apr. 2025 | Anthropic released a specialized version of Claude tailored for higher education institutions. Source |
| Mar. 2025 | You can now use Claude to search the internet to provide more up-to-date and relevant responses. Source |
| Feb. 2025 | Anthropic introduced Claude Code, the first agentic coding tool—in a limited research preview. Source |
| Feb. 2025 | Anthropic announced Claude 3.7 Sonnet, their most intelligent model to date and the first hybrid reasoning model on the market. Source |
| Nov. 2024 | Now you can tailor Claude’s responses to your unique needs and workflows. Source |
| Nov. 2024 | Anthropic introduced the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a new standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives, including content repositories, business tools, and development environments. Its aim is to help frontier models produce better, more relevant responses. Source |
| Nov. 2024 | You can now directly add content from Google Docs to chats and projects. Source |
| Nov. 2024 | Claude now has the ability to improve prompts and manage examples directly in the Anthropic Console. Source |
| Nov. 2024 | Claude 3.5 Haiku is now available on Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. Source |
| Nov. 2024 | Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet can analyze PDFs and images inside them. Source |
| Oct. 2024 | Anthropic released Claude for Desktop. Download Here |
| Oct. 2024 | Anthropic introduced the analysis tool, a new built-in feature for Claude.ai that enables Claude to write and run JavaScript code. Source |
| Oct. 2024 | Anthropic announced an upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which delivers across-the-board improvements over its predecessor, with particularly significant gains in coding—an area where it already led the field. Source |
| Oct. 2024 | Anthropic announced Claude 3.5 Haiku, the next generation of their fastest model. Source |
| Oct. 2024 | Anthropic launched Message Batches API, allowing developers to submit up to 10,000 queries for async processing in under 24 hours at a 50% discount compared to standard API calls. (Link) |
| Sep. 2024 | Now your entire organization can collaborate securely with Claude—with no training on chats or files. (Link) |
| Aug. 2024 | Artifacts are now generally available. (Link) |
| Aug. 2024 | Anthropic has publicly released the system prompts for its Claude AI models, offering unprecedented insight into the inner workings of these advanced language systems. (Link) |
| Aug. 2024 | Claude’s added a new screenshot button that allows you to quickly capture images from anywhere on your screen and include them in your prompt. (Link) |
| Aug. 2024 | Anthropic announced prompt caching on Claude API, which enables developers to cache frequently used context between API calls. (Link) |
| Jul. 2024 | Anthropic and Menlo Ventures Launch $100 Million Fund to Fuel AI Innovation. (Link) |
| Jul. 2024 | The new Claude Android app brings the power of Claude—including the most powerful model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet—to Android users. (Link) |
| Jun. 2024 | Claude 3.5 Sonnet launches—the first release in the forthcoming Claude 3.5 model family. (Link) |
| May. 2024 | Tool use, which enables Claude to interact with external tools and APIs, is now generally available across the entire Claude 3 model family on the Anthropic Messages API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. (Link) |
| Mar. 2024 | Claude 3 family releases, featuring three models: Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus. Each model offers different strengths in speed, intelligence, and task complexity. (Link) |
| Nov. 2023 | Anthropic introduces Claude 2.1. Claude 2.1 delivers advancements in key capabilities for enterprises—including an industry-leading 200K token context window, significant reductions in rates of model hallucination, system prompts, and a new beta feature: tool use. (Link) |
| Sep. 2023 | Anthropic introduces a paid plan for Claude.ai chat experience. (Link) |
| Aug. 2023 | Anthropic introduces Claude Instant 1.2, a faster, lower-priced yet still very capable model, which can handle a range of tasks including casual dialogue, text analysis, summarization, and document comprehension. (Link) |
| Jul. 2023 | Anthropic introduces Claude 2, which has improved performance and longer responses and can be accessed via API. (Link) |
| May. 2023 | Anthropic Raises $450 Million in Series C Funding to Scale Reliable AI Products. (Link) |
| May. 2023 | Claude’s context window has extended from 9K to 100K tokens. (Link) |
| Mar. 2023 | Anthropic introduces Claude, a next-generation AI assistant based on Anthropic’s research into training helpful, honest, and harmless AI systems. (Link) |
| Feb. 2023 | Anthropic Raises Series B to Build Steerable, Interpretable, Robust AI Systems. (Link) |
| May. 2021 | Anthropic raises $124 million to build more reliable, general AI systems. (Link) |
Deciphering the Trajectory: Speed and Focus
Examining Claude’s timeline reveals a remarkable pace of development. Anthropic, a company known for its commitment to responsible AI, has rapidly iterated on its flagship model. The substantial funding rounds further underscore the industry’s belief in Claude’s potential.
Noticeably, Claude’s evolution prioritizes capabilities, safety, and ethical considerations. This approach aligns with Anthropic’s mission and sets an important precedent for the development of future large language models.
Looking Ahead: Potential and Possibilities
Claude’s trajectory points towards a bright future. I anticipate continued rapid advancements in its capabilities, potentially driven by further model iterations and expanded datasets. As Claude matures, I expect to see wider adoption across various sectors, from content creation to customer service and beyond.
The AI landscape is dynamic, and Claude’s journey is far from over. Future developments may bring even more sophisticated language understanding, improved task completion, and novel applications we have yet to imagine.
