2026-07-01-claude-code-v2-1-197-claude-sonnet-5-becomes-the-default-model-in-cl

v2.1.197: Claude Sonnet 5 becomes the default model in Claude Code, with native 1M-token context and promotional pricing of $2/$10 per Mtok through 2026-08-31 (then $3/$15). (channel: tagged-release, 2026-06-30). Operator consequence: Default model silently changes on upgrade. Operators must re-audit: cost accounting (new $2/$10 promo rate, reverting to $3/$15 on 2026-08-31), context-window assumptions (1M native, 128k max output), and any evals/capability profiles pinned to Sonnet 4.6. If you pin models via org config or ANTHROPIC_MODEL, confirm whether Sonnet 5 is allowed/desired before rollout. Full receipted detail lives in harvest/watchlist.md.

Receipt

https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/releases/tag/v2.1.197

Finding metadata

Confidence: high

Run: 2026-07-01-weekly-digest-2026-06-24_2026-07-01-frontier-v0

Finding ID: 2026-07-01-claude-code-v2-1-197-claude-sonnet-5-becomes-the-default-model-in-cl

Accepted signals

Sonnet 5 propagated across harnesses in one week: Claude Code makes it the default (1M context); Pi adds support / 2026-07-01

Source links

Primary links, including exact changelog lines when available.

Claude Code
github release2026-07-01-claude-code-v2-1-197-claude-sonnet-5-becomes-the-default-model-in-clanthropics/claude-code / v2.1.197

Versioned source: run artifact