clauding.de
DE
• 2 min read AI-generated

Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 Retire on June 15 — What You Need to Do Now

Copy article as Markdown

Anthropic announced the deprecation of the original Claude 4 models. Starting June 15, 2026, API calls to Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 will fail. The migration is straightforward.

Anthropic Claude API Deprecation Migration
Featured image for "Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 Retire on June 15 — What You Need to Do Now"

Quick heads-up for everyone using Claude via the API: the original Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4 models — the versions released in May 2025 — will be shut down on June 15, 2026. After that date, API calls to claude-sonnet-4-20250514 and claude-opus-4-20250514 will fail.

What’s Affected?

Only the very first Claude 4 models. The current 4.6 versions (Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Opus 4.6) are not affected. And the brand-new Opus 4.7 isn’t either, of course.

If you’ve already migrated to 4.6 or newer, you’re all set. If you’re still using the original model IDs, now’s the time to switch.

How to Migrate

The good news: Anthropic has maintained API compatibility across the entire 4.x generation. The 4.6 models are more capable but not differently structured. In most cases, you just need to update the model ID in your code — your prompts should work without changes.

The recommended replacements:

  • claude-sonnet-4-20250514 → Claude Sonnet 4.6
  • claude-opus-4-20250514 → Claude Opus 4.6

My Take

Model deprecations are normal and no reason to panic. The 4.6 models are better than the originals in every way. Still, if you have automated workflows pointing to the old model IDs, set yourself a reminder. Two months sounds like plenty of time, but June 15 arrives faster than you think.

Sources: