Users Report Older Claude Models Degrading Before New Release

randal_olson · x · 2026-07-15

Someone asked the Claude team why older models slated for degradation suddenly perform noticeably worse right before a new model launch.

A subjective reply suggested: "Opus 5 is coming soon because Opus 4.8 is terrible today." This post is primarily user experience feedback regarding performance fluctuations of Anthropic's models around releases, rather than an official leak.

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