You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
4Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
2Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
Model FallbackArea: what it touches
New FeaturesKind: in v2.1.280,
What probably matters to youSection of the release
What
Claude Code now emits a new kind of system message, model_consent_fallback, when a session automatically falls back to a different model because the originally requested model requires usage credits the user hasn't agreed to spend. It's shown as a highlighted (gold) line in the transcript, is included in transcript filtering, and is mapped into SDK messages. The message follows the pattern: "Switched to X — now your default model / for this session · Y requires usage credits · /model to change".
Why
This makes it clear to the user why their model changed mid-session, and tells them to use /model if they want to change it back or adjust their consent.
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Added sinceA small documentation edit on Message Batches API touched a line naming /model after this was published.* **Retired:** May still be available on other cloud platforms. See [Model deprecations](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/model-deprecations) for more.build-with-claude/batch-processingsee the edit
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up /model, on pricing.| Claude Opus 4.1 ([retired, except on Bedrock and Google Cloud](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/model-deprecations)) | $15 / MTok | $18.75 / MTok | $30 / MTok | $1.50 / MTok | $75 / MTok |about-claude/pricingsee the edit
How sure we are
Two sources agreeTwo things we can check say the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agreesAnthropic's documentation has since written up /model, on pricing.
Anthropic's release notes agreeFixed Ctrl+C or Ctrl+D pressed twice in most dialogs (/model, /effort, /config, /status, /usage, /plugin, /sandbox, /permissions…
