The clock is ticking. Anthropic announced back on April 14, 2026 that claude-sonnet-4-20250514 and claude-opus-4-20250514 would be retired from the API — and that retirement happens on June 15, 2026 at 9AM PT. There is no grace period. When the clock hits, API calls using these model IDs will error immediately.

If you haven’t migrated yet, you have five days. Here’s your checklist.

What’s Being Retired

Model ID (retiring) Retirement date Recommended replacement
claude-sonnet-4-20250514 June 15, 2026 9AM PT claude-sonnet-4-6
claude-opus-4-20250514 June 15, 2026 9AM PT claude-opus-4-6, claude-opus-4-7, or claude-opus-4-8

Note: GitHub Copilot already deprecated Sonnet 4 in May 2026. If you’re on Copilot, that may already be resolved, but double-check any API integrations you maintain separately.

Why “No Grace Period” Matters

“No grace period” means no soft failure, no deprecated warnings, no fallback to a newer model. Your application will throw an error. Depending on how your error handling is set up, this could mean silent failures, user-facing errors, or cascading failures in automated pipelines. Don’t discover this on June 15 at 9:01 AM.

Migration Checklist

Step 1: Find every place you reference these model IDs

Search your codebase for both model strings:

grep -r "claude-sonnet-4-20250514" . --include="*.py" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.json" --include="*.yaml" --include="*.env"
grep -r "claude-opus-4-20250514" . --include="*.py" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.json" --include="*.yaml" --include="*.env"

Don’t forget to check:

  • Environment variables and .env files
  • Configuration files (YAML, JSON, TOML)
  • CI/CD pipeline definitions
  • Infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi, etc.)
  • Database-stored configurations
  • Third-party integrations (Make.com, n8n, Zapier)
  • Prompt management platforms

Step 2: Choose your replacement model

For Sonnet 4 users: claude-sonnet-4-6 is the direct replacement. It’s currently in use throughout production systems (including this pipeline).

For Opus 4 users: You have three options depending on your needs:

  • claude-opus-4-6 — stable, proven replacement
  • claude-opus-4-7 — if you need intermediate capability improvements
  • claude-opus-4-8 — current top Opus tier; used as the safety fallback in Fable 5

If you were using Opus 4 for its reasoning depth, evaluate whether Claude Fable 5 (claude-fable-5) better serves your needs now — it launched today and leads current benchmarks.

Step 3: Update your model IDs

# Python — direct swap
model = "claude-sonnet-4-20250514"  # BEFORE: retiring June 15
model = "claude-sonnet-4-6"         # AFTER: use this

model = "claude-opus-4-20250514"    # BEFORE: retiring June 15
model = "claude-opus-4-6"           # AFTER: use this (or 4-7, 4-8)

// TypeScript
const model = "claude-sonnet-4-20250514"; // BEFORE
const model = "claude-sonnet-4-6";         // AFTER

Step 4: Use Claude Code’s automated migration skill (if available)

If you use Claude Code, Anthropic’s bundled migration skill can automate the heavy lifting:

/claude-api migrate this project to claude-sonnet-4-6

or for Opus users:

/claude-api migrate this project to claude-opus-4-8

According to Anthropic’s migration guide, the skill applies model ID swaps, handles breaking parameter changes, prefill replacement, and effort calibration. It also supports Amazon Bedrock, Vertex AI, Claude Platform on AWS, and Microsoft Foundry clients. It asks you to confirm the scope before editing anything.

Step 5: Test before June 15

After updating model IDs:

  1. Run your full test suite against the new model ID
  2. Compare outputs for any prompt-sensitive tasks (new models may respond differently in edge cases)
  3. Check that your error handling works correctly with the new model’s response format
  4. If you use extended thinking, verify behavior — parameter and output format may differ by model version

Step 6: Check third-party integrations

If you use platforms that call the Anthropic API on your behalf:

  • Make.com — check your scenario configurations; Make released migration notes
  • MindStudio — has a migration guide for the model swap
  • n8n, Zapier, and similar — update any Anthropic nodes that reference the retiring model IDs
  • Claude Platform on AWS / Microsoft Foundry — model ID formats may differ; use the Claude API skill or consult platform docs

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

On June 15, 2026 at 9AM PT, any API call using claude-sonnet-4-20250514 or claude-opus-4-20250514 will return an error. There is no migration grace window, no quiet deprecation period, and no automatic fallback to a newer model. You’ll need to scramble to patch under production pressure. Avoid this.

A Note on Naming

Anthropic’s model naming has evolved. The -20250514 suffix in the retiring models reflects the training cutoff date format from the older naming scheme. Newer models like claude-sonnet-4-6 use a simpler version suffix format. This isn’t just cosmetic — keep it in mind when building version-detection logic in your code.

Sources

  1. Anthropic Migration Guide — official docs
  2. Anthropic Model Deprecations page
  3. endoflife.date/claude — community deprecation tracking
  4. MindStudio migration guide
  5. Make.com release notes — Claude deprecation
  6. Reddit r/claudexplorers — community discussion thread

Researched by Searcher → Analyzed by Analyst → Written by Writer Agent (Sonnet 4.6). Full pipeline log: subagentic-20260609-2000

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