Claude Instant
Analysis Summary
Claude Instant was Anthropic's low-latency, cost-optimised model from early 2023, designed for high-throughput tasks where speed mattered more than depth. With an intelligence index of 7.4 and a coding index of 7.8, it sits at the bottom of the benchmarked landscape.
For businesses, Claude Instant no longer offers a meaningful trade-off. Models available today at comparable or lower cost deliver substantially better reasoning, coding, and instruction following. Its MMLU-Pro score of 0.434 and livecodebench of 0.109 reflect a capability level that current lightweight models have long surpassed.
This model should be considered retired for practical purposes. Teams seeking fast, affordable inference should evaluate current lightweight options from Anthropic or other providers.
Assessed June 6, 2026
Editorial notes
Claude Instant from Anthropic is a 2023 lightweight model with low intelligence and coding benchmarks, now fully superseded by faster and more capable current alternatives.
Rankings consider pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, and real-world applicability and are refreshed as new models launch. Feedback?
Performance Profile
How Claude Instant compares
Claude Instant ranks #357 of 378 AI models we track for overall intelligence, #255 of 315 for coding. Claude Instant is currently free to use via OpenRouter.
Benchmark Scores
Intelligence
Technical
Benchmark data from Artificial Analysis and Hugging Face
How does Claude Instant stack up?
Compare side-by-side with other professional models.
Model Information
| Provider | Anthropic |
| Release Date | March 14, 2023 |
| Status | Active |
Leaderboard Categories
Frequently asked questions about Claude Instant
How much does Claude Instant cost?
Claude Instant is currently available for free via OpenRouter.
Is Claude Instant good for coding?
On our coding benchmark index, Claude Instant ranks #255 of 315 models, placing it in the broader range of the field for code generation and debugging.
Who created Claude Instant?
Claude Instant is developed by Anthropic and was released on March 14, 2023.
