Anthropic's own help documentation says Claude Pro users need to pay extra to access Opus models. A Claude Code configuration guide warns that Pro plan subscribers "will only be able to use Opus models after enabling and purchasing extra usage." But that's outdated. Thariq, an Anthropic team member, confirmed on Hacker News that the article predates Opus's rollout to Pro plans, which happened in January 2025. The Wayback Machine shows the page hasn't changed since early December.
Those same docs contain a bigger surprise. The supported models table lists Opus 4.7, Sonnet 4.6, and Opus 4.6 alongside the known Opus 4.5, Sonnet 4.5, and Haiku 4.5. Anthropic hasn't publicly announced anything beyond the 4.5 generation. Those could be upcoming releases, internal names, or placeholder entries. Nobody from Anthropic has commented on them.
The original gating made economic sense. One Hacker News user noted that "Opus was consuming so much usage that it was basically unusable on anything but the Max plan." Opus demands far more GPU compute per token than Sonnet or Haiku. Restricting it to higher tiers kept costs manageable. The policy changed for Pro users months ago. The docs just never caught up.
For developers configuring Claude Code, the lesson is straightforward: don't trust the help center to reflect current policy. Anthropic is shipping fast, and the documentation isn't keeping pace. Check community channels or just try the model yourself before assuming access restrictions still apply. Recent policy changes often happen silently, so don't rely on outdated guides.