Claude Haiku 4.5: Cheap and Fast
The Right Trade
Anthropic shipped Claude Haiku 4.5. You trade deeper reasoning for speed and cost. For most tasks, that's the correct trade.
The Numbers
| Model | Input (1M tokens) | Output (1M tokens) |
|---|---|---|
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.80 | $4 |
| Sonnet 4.5 | $3 | $15 |
3.75x cheaper. Sub-200ms latency versus Sonnet's 500-800ms. That gap matters for anything that needs to feel responsive.
A small support chatbot costs $5-20/month on Haiku versus $50-150/month on Sonnet. High-volume workloads widen the gap further.
Where I Use It
I run Haiku for small refactors, code review, and debugging. It matches Sonnet 4 on most coding tasks. The speed makes it feel snappier, and for real-time pair programming or customer support it is the obvious choice. Sonnet earns its price when you need complex reasoning or nuanced writing.
January 2025 Cutoff
Note
All three recent Claude models (Haiku, Sonnet 4.5, Opus 4.1) have a January 2025 knowledge cutoff. Provide context in your prompt when working with newer frameworks or libraries.
Established patterns and refactoring work fine, but bleeding-edge tools require extra context in your prompts.
When Cost Decides
Haiku makes LLM integration practical for projects where API costs would otherwise kill the idea. You can afford to be generous with calls. It will not impress on reasoning, but it does not need to.
Related posts:
- Claude Code's Strengths and Weaknesses in March 2025 - See how Haiku compares to other Claude tools
- GPT-4.1: SWE-bench Performance - Compare Haiku to GPT-4.1 on coding benchmarks
- The True Cost of AI - Understand AI pricing across different models and services