Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 4.8 points higher (56.0 vs 51.2) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $5242; both flagship class). Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallbac….
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.2 | 56.0 | +9.4% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 9.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,241.59 | $7,259.50 | +38.5% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 38.5% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 28.41s | 447.79s | +1476.2% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 1476.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback): 9.4% more intelligence, 38.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1476.2% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-high/claude-sonnet-5-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-high/claude-sonnet-5-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill