[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong] Anthropic has formally integrated its highest-performance artificial intelligence model, Claude Fable 5, into some higher-tier subscription plans. It is shifting from a limited-time offering after launch to a standard service structure.

According to online media outlet Gigazine on July 19 local time, Claude Fable 5 will be available on the personal Max plan and the business Team Premium plan. Use is limited to up to 50 percent of each plan’s total usage allowance.

Claude Fable 5 is Anthropic’s top-tier AI model unveiled in June. While the existing Claude lineup consists of the high-speed Haiku, general-purpose Sonnet and high-performance Opus, Fable 5 was introduced as the top model with performance surpassing Opus.

At launch, it was offered on a pay-as-you-go API basis, while a limited-time trial program also ran for some paid subscribers. Service was then temporarily suspended from June 13 to July 1 under U.S. government guidelines, and the subscription offering period was extended several times.

Anthropic extended the subscription availability schedule, originally set to run through July 8, to July 13 to reflect the suspension period. It then expanded it again through July 19 and has now converted it into a standard service.

The eligible plans are the personal Max 5x at $110 a month and Max x20 at $220 a month, and the business Team Premium at $100 a month. Claude Fable 5 is not offered on an unlimited basis, and can be used only up to half of the total allowance available under each plan.

Anthropic explained the operating approach is aimed at managing demand. The company said, "Demand for Fable 5 is difficult to predict, so we are rolling out an expanded subscription service in stages," adding, "We have continued to broaden availability in line with securing additional compute resources."

It also added, "In the higher-tier plans that use Fable the most, we apply as a standard a method that allocates 50 percent of total usage to Fable 5." As a result, even higher-tier subscribers cannot use their entire allowance on Fable 5 and must split the remainder with other Claude models.

In the industry, the move is viewed as an example showing that cost and computing resource management are emerging as key challenges in the commercialization of ultra-high-performance AI models. As model performance rises, inference costs and the burden of GPU resources increase, and there is analysis that AI companies may expand strategies of offering top-tier models on a limited basis.

Under the policy change, users who want to keep using Claude Fable 5 must subscribe to the Max or Team Premium plan. The earlier approach of offering it for limited periods across various paid plans has ended, and a service structure centered on higher-tier subscription products has taken hold in earnest.