Claude this spring: cheaper models, Cowork in every chat, and Duet
November 2026
It has been a busy couple of months for Claude. These are the changes we think matter most for the businesses we work with.
What changed
The 5.5 models. Opus 5.5 arrived on 22 September, and Anthropic says it costs 40% less to run than Opus 5. Sonnet 5.5 followed on 28 September as the faster, lower-cost option, and Haiku 5.5 on 7 October as the cheapest and fastest.
Cowork in every chat. Since 16 September, you can hand Claude a bigger task from any conversation, and your chats, projects, connectors and skills carry across. It is rolling out to Pro and Max plans.
Duet. On 21 October, Anthropic opened a research preview of Duet for Pro and Max users: a proactive agent that works across your connected apps.
Smart reports. Enterprise admins can now see how their team uses Claude, including cost, where people get stuck, and repeated work worth turning into a shared skill.
Who it matters for
Anyone using Claude at work, and especially anyone connecting it to business systems. The more Claude can do on its own, the more the setup around it matters: which connectors it has, what it can change, and who checks its work.
What we would do now
Pick the right model for the job. Not every task needs the biggest one, and the cheaper models are now good enough for a lot of everyday work.
Review your connector permissions before trying Cowork or Duet on real work. Start read-only and switch on more once it has earned it.
If you are on Enterprise, look at the smart reports. The repeated patterns are a ready-made list of skills worth building.