Description: Haiku 4.5 leaves Claude's model picker for Free, Pro and Max on October 29, 2026. Your chats remain, Haiku 5.5 takes over, and Claude Code, Team, Enterprise and the API are outside this change. Here's the practical difference.
Checked October 16, 2026. Starting October 29, Claude users on Free, Pro and Max will no longer be able to select Haiku 4.5 in chat, Cowork or Design. Claude will switch those conversations to Haiku 5.5. Your previous messages stay put: this is a model-picker change, not a deletion of your account or history.
Who loses the Haiku 4.5 option?
Anthropic announced the change on October 15. Through October 28, Haiku 4.5 remains under “More models.” The removal also covers Claude Desktop and Claude Mobile where the affected experiences are available.
| Where you use Claude | From October 29 |
|---|---|
| Free, Pro or Max: chat, Cowork, Design | Haiku 4.5 removed from the picker; Haiku 5.5 replaces it |
| Team or Enterprise | Not affected by this removal |
| Claude Code | Not affected |
| Claude Platform API | Not affected |
That distinction matters if you use Claude both for everyday chats and in a development workflow. A model disappearing from the consumer picker does not by itself announce the end of its API endpoint.
What happens to an old Haiku 4.5 conversation?
Open it as usual. The conversation remains in your history, but when you send the next message after the change, Haiku 5.5 generates the reply. You can choose another available model by clicking the model name beside Send; the selection applies to the next response. If an old answer is important to your work, export your data or keep a copy before comparing the models.
A practical example: you drafted a cover letter with Haiku 4.5 in September. In November, you can continue that thread, but the revisions will come from Haiku 5.5. The notebook stays; the person holding the pen changes.
Can Free users use Haiku 5.5? Does this change API pricing?
Yes. Anthropic lists Haiku 5.5 as selectable on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, following its October 7 launch. That does not promise unlimited messages on Free; applicable usage limits still matter.
For developers, API billing is separate from a Claude chat subscription. Anthropic lists Haiku 5.5 at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens for prompts up to 100,000 tokens, with higher rates for longer prompts. These are API rates, not a per-message bill for a Free chat.
Bottom line
If you use Free, Pro or Max, expect Haiku 5.5 to answer your old Haiku 4.5 chats from October 29. Save any output you need to reproduce exactly and test a sample prompt if consistency matters. You can keep the conversation without keeping the old model selected.
Official sources: Anthropic Help Center: Haiku 4.5 leaving the model selector, announced October 15 · Haiku plan availability · Haiku 5.5 launch and API pricing, October 7
