Maybe the 4.7 inference is cheaper than 4.6? Just guessing.

It isn't removed:

/model claude-opus-4-6[1m]

Generally it is a good practice to keep v.[N] and [N-1] in active deployment. But lately a lot of policies from Anthropic are confusing at best, and at worst plain subscriber-hostile.

If costs are drowning them, they should rather be a bit more honest about the messaging and hike prices of their lower ($20 / $100) tier by ~$10 and enforce stricter limits (optionally).

I liked 4.5 and 4.6, but none of them are available outside of using API now - and thats a bummer given the 2~2.5X overall costs

The casino increased all their fees, reduced their limits and want more from your credits.

The owner of this casino (Anthropic) decided to upgrade the slot machine (Claude Code) with a new random number generator engine (Opus 4.7) and decommissioned the old one (Opus 4.6).

They claim that the new engine (Opus 4.7) gives better odds and generates results faster with every press of the button, with a catch that it takes more credits on every turn.

The house (Anthropic) always wins.

What alternatives are people using? I really liked Claude code up until a couple of weeks ago when it went a bit crap. I am a solo dev that works on my own projects as well as professional work. I am that person people think knows about computers. I'm not, I can make web pages and use a terminal.

Cancelled Claude, too expensive for what it is and found much better alternatives price-wise.