Anthropic Confirms Two Claude 5.5 Models as Wider October AI Release Rumors Circulate

A seven-model watchlist for possible October launches is circulating among AI developers, but the confirmed record is narrower: Anthropic says Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Haiku 5.5 are due in the coming weeks, while Google, xAI and Z.ai have not announced release dates for the other named models. As of September 24, 2026, the rumored slate includes Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Haiku 5.5, Gemini 4, Next Gemini Pro, a next GLM model, Grok 4.8 and Grok 4.9. Anthropic is the only company in that group with an explicit near-term statement: in its September 22 Claude Opus 5.5 launch, the company introduced the first model in the Claude 5.5 family, said it performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 on most work, costs 40% less than Opus 5 on typical workloads, and said Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Haiku 5.5 would follow in the coming weeks.