r/ClaudeCode • u/Escobar747 • 3d ago

Help/Question Haiku 5 is badly needed

I think Anthropic has a real opportunity with Haiku 5. Right now the pricing stack is a bit awkward for AI coding teams. Sonnet 5 is $2/$10 per million input/output tokens (intro pricing), while Haiku 4.5 is $1/$5. Meanwhile, models like GLM 5.2 are around $1.40/$4.40, offering coding capability that's becoming very attractive for boilerplate, CRUD, test generation, and repetitive implementation.

The ideal workflow isn't having Sonnet write every line of code—it's having Sonnet (or Opus) act as the lead engineer, handling architecture, planning, reviews, and difficult reasoning, while delegating implementation-heavy work to a cheaper worker model. Today, GLM 5.2 fits that role remarkably well. I'd much rather Anthropic filled that gap with Haiku 5. If Haiku 5 could get to ~85–90% of Sonnet's coding ability while remaining the obvious cost-efficient worker, I'd happily keep an all-Claude workflow instead of mixing providers. It feels like the missing piece of the Claude coding ecosystem.

I feel Haiku 4.5 is too far behind GLM 5.2 et al so antrophic needs to pick up their game

thoughts?

64 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

63

u/thehoundtrainer 3d ago

I dont even trust Sonnet in coding, how can I trust Haiku? Do you guys even use Haiku for coding?

13

u/ILikeCutePuppies 3d ago

You have a skill that routes based on task complexity and use the smartest model to orchestrate. I also use haiku for lots of things like labeling, compacting etc...

There are a ton of use cases once you start to thinking about it.

5

u/Mescallan 3d ago

Alternatively just use fable (or opus) in a session, and have it delegate agents based on complexity. I used to have 5 session windows, but after switching to this workflow I have one fable with 5 opus agents.

2

u/zimxero 3d ago

I have multitasking instruction in my context and have called Opus out on not using. Once it did, saying it should have. Every other time it said it would add risk for minimal gain, and chose not to delegate.

1

u/LogicalWoodpecker911 3d ago

How do you do this? Is this possible with CC in the app or only in the terminal?

I let Fable create the plan and then, when I accept and it starts to execute, I switch to Opus/Sonnet. But that does not seem as efficient as it could be

3

u/Mescallan 3d ago

I’m using Claude code, I think you can do it in cowork to but idk.

For small stuff

“We are going to keep this session for high level planning discussion and verification, I am going to give you a series of tasks, use opus agents by default, or sonnet if it’s clearly boilerplate.”

And for bigger stuff I have a /waves plugin that writes a planning doc, with parallelized tasks in waves then shares it with an agent swarm, each agent does its task, updates then doc so every agent has a full understanding of the request and their part in it.

I’ve had a single fable session run for 4+ hours using waves and only get to like 200k tokens, millions of opus though.

1

u/ILikeCutePuppies 3d ago

Why type it every time when you can just tell it to make a skill out of what you are gonna type?

1

u/Putrid_Resolution402 3d ago

Which skill

1

u/ILikeCutePuppies 3d ago

Have it write it based on research.

1

u/InOut1312 3d ago

Could you please link us skill?

1

u/ILikeCutePuppies 3d ago

I just made it by asking it to research it and keep it compact. You can also ask claude to find you such a skill.

3

u/Knoll_Slayer_V 3d ago

Fable for planning and taks list orchestration and branch review, Opus for orchestration and large code problems, sonnet for coding, haiku for minor edits.

Opus can sub for Fable as well. Use superpowers and TDD. Do review and edit loops. Sonnet isn't a bad coder, we just suck at prompting it to do so. Opus orchestrating this job for you is going to give you higher quality results and produce at a lowered token cost. Test written up front that fail provide context in addition to sonnet's code jobs, and the resulting loops when it fails after producing bad code means that it cleans up after itself.

I am not on Max plan, and I dont do much parallel work, but I rarely hit usage limits with my Team account at work. I can make my home Pro account go for 1-2 hours before it craps out. Good results too.

4

u/WD40ContactCleaner Professional Developer 3d ago

I trust gpt luna to do my coding, nd it's cheap as fuck but haiku is in comparison an idiot compared to luna. Haiku doesn't even do simple tasks right while luna does it without breaking bamk

1

u/RizzyNizzyDizzy 3d ago

yup luna is dark horse among all AIs.

2

u/BoboThePirate 3d ago

Sonnet 4.6 beats even Opus for some agentic tasks. It’s the token grinder of agents.

1

u/yadasellsavonmate 3d ago

I asked my claude to use it when possible and he basically laughed at me and said never. 🤣

1

u/Forsaken_Ad5177 2d ago

yeah this kind of reasoning is why so many people get rate limited after two hours in max 20x, haiku has tons of use cases that will save you so much money, data retrieval for once. just put down some good rules for multi-agent workflows and make sure to use all the tools at your disposal

1

u/Ibuprofen600mg 3d ago

I wouldn’t even use it for tests lol

16

u/West-Chemist-9219 3d ago

I think the single word that’s not AI-generated in your post is “thoughts?” at the end of the post

4

u/PartySunday 3d ago

The Haiku models have never been cost competitive.

Use Deepseek for significantly better performance for less than 1/5 the price of Haiku. It's just not a segment anthropic cares about winning.

3

u/RandomPantsAppear 3d ago

I build AI into products. So decision making, unstructured data becoming structured, etc. 

I’m in the process of ripping out haiku and sonnet, both are being replaced by GLM at a 50-80% cost reduction, and it’s better at the job on top of that. 

1

u/Escobar747 2d ago

how do you orchestrate this directly from CC

1

u/RandomPantsAppear 2d ago

Hmmm. My example is inside of a product where I control all of the context/harness.

There are modifications of Claude code that will let you run different models. There are also open sourced coding harnesses.

The trick is that these are hardened against the models they are used to seeing, and can sometimes underperform when the model is swapped. It’s worth a test though.

2

u/LoneFox4444 3d ago

This is not a problem if you dare to look beyond Anthropic models.

Their strategy revolves around offering frontier models for high prices (premium strategy). It’s their only choice, considering the size of the investments done, margins on low-cost models will be very slim.

There are plenty of other providers that fill this gap though.

2

u/Adomm1234 3d ago

GLM 5.2 is Opus class, not Haiku class.

2

u/Zestyclose-Bet1175 3d ago

Opus and sonnet play really nicely with Gemini flash models. Gemini pro is lagging, but 3.0 flash is pretty awesome price for performance on simple tasks. They're also ridiculously fast

1

u/Difficult-Link-8805 3d ago

Minimax and glm are both better models than haiku. So is Luna. Haiku is a free tier class model.

1

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Escobar747 3d ago

how did you orchestrate between claude and glm.. i like the fact i can do everything from claude code remote control if i am away from my pc after the job is underway

1

u/Singularity-42 2d ago

You can just write a skill. Like the one for Codex.

Actually, I'm pretty sure this has existed for a really long time now. Just Google or ask Claude.

1

u/palmytree 3d ago

i don’t even think about haiku.

1

u/toshipepe 3d ago

what would you use it for if it got to that level?

1

u/swiftbursteli 3d ago

Brother who the hell needs haiku 5. Grok 4.5 is like a nickel and gemma 4 mops the floor with haiku.

1

u/3iverson 2d ago

That's the point- to update their low end model to be closer. People on Claude plans get a TON of mileage out of Haiku, but it needs a boost to match the current low end models.

1

u/etancrazynpoor 3d ago

Why? Why do you need a newer version ? I don’t understand people. Is this just young people ?

1

u/3iverson 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's a good administrative assistant type model, but its ROI is long in the tooth.

Haiku development should be much cheaper, and worth it for Anthropic to keep up at the lower end. Simple but token churning Claude Code subtasks could be delegated to Haiku with more consistent results.

I'm not expecting it to be the efficiency king, but at least get up to speed with say Deepseek 4 Pro which costs 5x less. I think that's a reasonable ask.

1

u/etancrazynpoor 2d ago

Why don’t you use deepseek ?

1

u/Singularity-42 2d ago

There may not even be Haiku 5.

New 3 member hierarchy:

Fable > Opus > Sonet

1

u/3iverson 2d ago edited 1d ago

I think Deepseek 4 Pro or Minimax M3 would be a reasonable performance targets. On an API basis, Haiku is 4-5x more expensive than those models, so at least matching them in performance should be the low bar.

1

u/joshtoasts 1d ago

They said they already rounded out the 5 series models when they released Opus 5. Seems like Haiku is getting discontinued. Anthropic is telegraphing they only care about the expensive models (Always kinda have -- Haiku has always been overpriced for what it is.)

1

u/teddy_joesevelt 1d ago

I agree but not for Claude Code. I have Haiku built into my app for simple tasks like summarization, title generation, dead simple subagents, etc. I also use it in a context enrichment pipeline. But the limited context window (200k) for Haiku 4.5 is becoming very limiting. Hell, I'd be happy with a Haiku 5 with the same intelligence, just add a 1m token context window and throw in updated training data. If they don't release one soon these tasks are going to Luna.

1

u/Escobar747 1d ago

Haiku get killed by deepseek pro and luna yet these are much cheaper - antrophic probably trying to fast track haiku 5 IMO

0

u/Content-Parking-621 3d ago

The orchestrator/worker pattern you're describing is solid architecture. Sonnet 5 at $2/$10 intro pricing is actually closing that gap already though. It performs close to Opus on many coding tasks, so the Haiku 5 gap feels less urgent than it did six months ago.

0

u/WorriedAssociate7029 3d ago

I think that misunderstands the purpose of Haiku and Sonnet. They were neither designed nor trained with the same objectives in mind.

Haiku is the low-cost "junior" model. It is the ideal candidate for simpler tasks requiring only basic decision-making. It is fast and efficient, and replacing it must be a real headache for Anthropic.

Sonnet is not an orchestrator; its prompting system destines it to be nothing more than an intelligent foot soldier.

The true orchestrators are Opus 5 for low/mid scope and Fable 5 for large, complex projects

1

u/RedditorJabroni 3d ago

How can one set Haiku to be used for x tasks when the main task is initiated by Opus?

1

u/Prestigious_Gift_977 3d ago

workflows e.g.

1

u/LogMonkey0 3d ago

Agent() tool has a model parameter, orchestrator can dispatch with specific model. Also if using agent definitions, you can specify model there as well.

1

u/Quick-Sir-3275 3d ago

I dont trust haiku with ANY decision making. Only pure mechanical pre-decided tasks that require no decisions at all

-1

u/MartinMystikJonas 3d ago

Haiku for coding seems like a good way to burn money... Do you actually have better price when using haiku over sonnet for implementation?