GitHub Copilot: Claude Sonnet 5 Now Generally Available
GitHub CopilotGitHub rolled out Claude Sonnet 5 as a generally available model in GitHub Copilot on June 30, 2026, giving developers a new Sonnet-class option that closes much of the performance gap with Claude Opus 4.8 while remaining significantly cheaper. The model is available across Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise plans, rolling out gradually across VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Xcode, Eclipse, Copilot CLI, cloud agent, the Copilot App, github.com, and GitHub Mobile. Early testers describe it as markedly more agentic than its predecessor, finishing complex multi-step tasks and self-checking its own output without being prompted. Business and Enterprise administrators must explicitly enable the model through Copilot's model policy settings.
Key Takeaways
- Sonnet 5 scores 63.2% on GitHub's internal agentic coding benchmark, closing much of the gap with Opus 4.8's 69.2% while significantly undercutting it on price.
- Early testers say Sonnet 5 is markedly more agentic than previous Sonnet models, finishing complex tasks and self-checking its own output without being asked.
- The model launches at $2/$10 per million input/output tokens through August 31, 2026, undercutting Opus 4.8 and rivals like GPT-5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro.
- Rollout spans nearly every Copilot surface at once, including VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Xcode, Eclipse, Copilot CLI, the Copilot App, and GitHub Mobile.
- Business and Enterprise admins must manually enable Sonnet 5 through Copilot's model policy settings before developers in their org can use it.
- Anthropic reports Sonnet 5 shows a lower rate of undesirable behaviors than Sonnet 4.6, including better resistance to prompt-injection hijack attempts in agentic contexts.
Sources & Mentions
5 external resources covering this update
Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 as a cheaper way to run agents
TechCrunch
Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5 at a steep discount to its top model as the company races toward a blockbuster IPO
VentureBeat
Anthropic Sonnet 5: It closes the gap with Opus 4.8, and is cheap until August
The New Stack
GitHub Copilot Adds Claude Sonnet 5 With Near Opus-Level Agentic Power
AlphaSignal
Anthropic upgrades Claude with new Sonnet 5 model, details here
9to5Mac
GitHub Copilot Adds Claude Sonnet 5
GitHub has made Claude Sonnet 5, Anthropic's newest Sonnet-class model, generally available across GitHub Copilot. The rollout began on June 30, 2026 and is reaching users gradually, so the model may not appear immediately in every model picker.
A Sonnet Model That Closes the Gap with Opus
According to GitHub's internal testing, Claude Sonnet 5 delivers strong results across a wide range of coding scenarios, with particularly strong performance on CLI-style tasks. On an internal agentic coding benchmark, the model scored 63.2%, compared to 69.2% for Claude Opus 4.8 and 58.1% for the previous Sonnet 4.6, putting Sonnet 5 much closer to Opus-level capability while remaining a lighter, faster model. GitHub also highlighted excellent prompt-cache utilization and competitive latency at lower reasoning-effort levels, which should make Sonnet 5 an appealing default for developers who want fast, capable responses without switching to a heavier reasoning model for every task.
More Agentic By Design
Early access partners who tested Claude Sonnet 5 inside Copilot consistently described the model as noticeably more agentic than its predecessors. Testers reported that the model finishes complex tasks where earlier Sonnet models would stop short, checks its own output without being explicitly asked to, and handles sustained coding, tool use, and debugging reliably across messy, real-world technical contexts. Anthropic separately reported that Sonnet 5 shows a lower rate of undesirable behaviors, including reduced cooperation with misuse attempts and better resistance to prompt-injection hijacks, which matters as more developers hand off multi-step, autonomous work to Copilot's agents.
Where and How to Access It
Claude Sonnet 5 is rolling out to Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise subscribers. It can be selected from the model picker across Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, GitHub Copilot CLI, the GitHub Copilot cloud agent, the Copilot App, github.com, GitHub Mobile (iOS and Android), JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, and Eclipse. Business and Enterprise administrators need to turn the model on manually through Copilot's model policy settings before it becomes available to their organization's developers. Like other Sonnet models in Copilot, Claude Sonnet 5 runs under Zero Data Retention (ZDR).
Pricing
Sonnet 5 uses Copilot's usage-based billing at the provider's list pricing. On Anthropic's own platform, Sonnet 5 launches at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through August 31, 2026, after which pricing rises to $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, still notably cheaper than Opus 4.8 and competitive with rival flagship-adjacent models from OpenAI and Google. Developers should check GitHub's Copilot pricing documentation for the exact request-based costs that apply inside Copilot.