I saw that this subagent is using Sonnet 4.6 Medium. Since we know the pricing should be similar to Sonnet 5, is there any configuration to set the subagent model?
Hey, thanks for the question. From your screenshot, I can see the Task subagent Draft architecture design spec ran on Sonnet 4.6 Medium even though you didn’t pick it. Subagent models are configurable, here’s how:
Custom subagents .cursor/agents/*.md, like your Design Spec. Add model: in the YAML frontmatter:
---
name: Design Spec
model: claude-sonnet-5-thinking # or inherit to use the parent chat model
---
Bracket syntax pins the variant and effort, for example model: claude-opus-4-8[effort=high]. Note: this syntax isn’t officially documented yet, and it doesn’t work with the CLI --model flag. For CLI you need to pass the exact slug, for example claude-opus-4-8-thinking-high.
Built-in subagents, Explore, etc. Go to Settings > Agents > Subagents and pick a model per subagent type.
At the prompt level. You can tell the parent agent use my current model for any subagents. The Task tool also accepts a model argument.
About Grok automatically swapping in a Sonnet slug for Task calls without being asked, that’s known behavior. I can’t share an ETA for a change yet. If the model still doesn’t apply after setting model: in the frontmatter, send the Request ID and I can take a closer look.
Pricing. Sonnet 4.6 and Sonnet 5 are both $3/M in and $15/M out at standard pricing, but Sonnet 5 currently has a launch promo of $2/$10 through August 31, 2026, so it’s cheaper right now. Keep in mind actual cost depends on how many tokens a given task uses, not just the per-token rate.
More details in the related thread: Subagent Model Choice Not Respected