Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-10.
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 17.4 points higher (64.6 vs 47.2) but costs 3.4× as much to run the benchmark ($22191 vs $6618; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 47.2, and Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallbac… when 47.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) | Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 47.2 | 64.6 | +36.9% Claude Fable 5.2 (Max… is 36.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,617.89 | $22,191.42 | +235.3% Claude Fable 5.2 (Max… is 3.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 32.12s | 258.66s | +705.3% Claude Fable 5.2 (Max… is 705.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $8.00 / $40.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback): 36.9% more intelligence, 235.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 705.3% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) scores 58.30 for $5903.
- Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-high/claude-fable-5-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-high/claude-fable-5-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill