Anthropic announced that Claude Fable 5 — currently the company's most powerful model — is included at no extra cost on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise only through June 22. After that, they'll charge usage credits on top of the subscription. The same tokens that are twice as expensive as Opus. So you pay for the subscription, then pay again for however much you burn.
This is a trend
Feels like this was always where things were headed. GitHub Copilot already did the same thing on June 1st: kept the subscription, layered token-based billing on top, and agent runs chew through it like nothing. The question isn't whether other providers will follow — it's who's next.
Why it matters
Top-tier models are moving to consumption billing. Access to the most powerful tool now costs both the base subscription and whatever you actually burn. For anyone running agents or long tasks, the bill will grow regardless of which plan you're on.
There's hope the model is powerful enough that we'll clear all our tasks by June 22. Or not.