Claude Code 2.1.296 Prices Sonnet 5.5 Cache Reads at Ten Cents
The 9 October 2026 release sets Sonnet 5.5 cache-read pricing in the cost display to $0.10 per million tokens, down from $0.20.
Direct answer
Claude Code 2.1.296 says /cost, the status line, --max-budget-usd, and the SDK cost figures now price Sonnet 5.5 cache reads at $0.10 per million tokens, down from $0.20.
The pricing line in Claude Code 2.1.296 is separate from the hook fixes on the same release page. The notes say /cost, the status line, --max-budget-usd, and the SDK's cost figures now price Sonnet 5.5 cache reads at $0.10 per million tokens. The previous figure in that display was $0.20. The release was published on 9 October 2026. It does not reprint Anthropic's full price card. It states the number the CLI and SDK will use for that cache-read line.
A nearby fix is about counting, not price. Token counts for Haiku 5.5 and other models that take only adaptive thinking failed behind some gateways and were counted with budget thinking elsewhere. The notes say that count is fixed. Those two lines can be confused because both mention tokens. One changes the dollar rate shown for Sonnet 5.5 cache reads. The other changes how tokens are tallied for models that do not accept a thinking budget.
What the page does not change
The same release also raises the default limit on MCP tool descriptions and server instructions from 2,048 to 4,096 characters. That is a prompt-size limit, not a price. The cost update is specifically the cache-read rate used by the cost display, the budget flag, and the SDK figures.
Source: Claude Code v2.1.296.
FAQ
- Which surfaces pick up the new figure?
- The release names /cost, the status line, the --max-budget-usd flag, and the SDK's cost figures.
- Is this a change to the Haiku 5.5 token counter?
- No. A separate line says token counts for Haiku 5.5 and other adaptive-thinking-only models were fixed when gateways rejected budget thinking.