Apple Ships Xcode Beta with Claude, GPT-5 Support
My pal Chance Miller reports for 9to5 Mac Apple on Thursday shipped Xcode 26 Beta 7 to developers. The release is noteworthy because it includes support for AI models in Claude and GPT–5. Miller writes using artificial intelligence to assist with programming software helps developers “write code, fix bugs, access documentation, and more.”
GPT–5 is the default model in Xcode. Users can opt for GPT–4.1, according to Miller.
“ChatGPT in Xcode provides two model choices. ‘GPT–5’ is optimized for quick, high-quality results, and should work well for most coding tasks,” Apple says in describing Xcode’s newfound AI integrations. For difficult tasks, choose ‘GPT–5 (Reasoning),’ which spends more time thinking before responding, and can provide more accurate results for complex coding tasks.”
Notably, Miller (as well as Jason Snell at Six Colors) says developers can run their own models locally on their Mac and even “use API keys from other AI providers,” Miller said.
I wrote about the accessibility implications of this feature last week, so it’s good to see the rumor become reality. As I said then, that programmers have the ability to lean on, say, Anthropic’s Claude for writing code and referencing documentation has the potential to be a de-facto accessibility feature for developers with disabilities. In very much the same way chatbots like ChatGPT can make web searches more accessible by doing the grunt work, so too can it help in coding. It’s important to emphasize the distinction here; leaning heavily into AI in this way isn’t cheating or lazy. On the contrary, it’s downright savviness—it leverages what’s arguably a computer’s greatest strength: automation. More pointedly in accessibility terms, using AI in coding makes what could plausibly be inaccessible in ways much more inclusive. Of course vigilance is necessary for spotting errors or hallucinations, but the genuine good AI can do as assistive technologies is neither trivial nor a viewpoint seen from rose-colored glasses.
