OpenAI’s biggest competitor just released an AI that could shake up the industry
San Francisco-based AI firm Anthropic, a major competitor to OpenAI, has launched its latest artificial intelligence model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, calling it its “most intelligent model to date.” The company made the announcement in a post on X at midnight on February 25, 2025.
Describing the new release as a hybrid reasoning model, Anthropic says Claude 3.7 Sonnet can deliver near-instant responses while also excelling at step-by-step logical reasoning. The model’s extended thinking mode offers enhanced capabilities in math, physics, coding, and instruction-following, though Anthropic has opted to focus less on competition-style math and computer science problems in favor of real-world applications that “better reflect the needs of our users.”
One of the major improvements in this iteration is that API users can now control how long the model spends “thinking” before responding, allowing for greater flexibility in handling complex tasks. Additionally, Anthropic claims it has significantly improved the model’s willingness to engage, reducing unnecessary refusals by 45% compared to its predecessor.
Despite these enhancements, pricing remains unchanged. Claude 3.7 Sonnet costs $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, including additional charges for extended thinking tokens.
Alongside the launch of Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Anthropic has also unveiled Claude Code, an agentic coding tool designed to assist developers by handling large-scale programming tasks autonomously. Currently available in a limited research preview, this tool enables users to delegate complex coding work directly from their terminal.
According to Anthropic, Claude Code has already demonstrated significant efficiency gains. In early testing, the tool completed tasks in a single pass that would typically require over 45 minutes of manual effort.
Anthropic’s latest innovations arrive amid fierce competition in the AI industry, where companies are not only pushing the boundaries of AI performance but also striving to make their models more cost-effective.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic has quickly positioned itself as a formidable player in the AI space. The company is currently in the midst of a $3.5 billion funding round, which, if completed, would bring its valuation to $61.5 billion, according to multiple reports.
Anthropic first introduced its Claude AI models as a response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, offering users a more transparent glimpse into the model’s reasoning process. With Claude 3.7 Sonnet and the launch of Claude Code, the company is doubling down on its mission to create AI tools that are not only powerful but also more practical for real-world applications.
As AI development continues at breakneck speed, Anthropic’s latest moves signal its intent to remain at the forefront of the industry, challenging OpenAI, Google, and other tech giants in the battle for AI supremacy.