Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, 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 Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallb… scores 2.1 points higher (48.9 vs 46.8) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($3983 vs $3158; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallb… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) | Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 46.8 | 48.9 | +4.5% Claude Fable 5.1 (Med… is 4.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,157.66 | $3,983.28 | +26.1% Claude Fable 5.1 (Med… is 26.1% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.92s | 19.49s | +78.5% Claude Fable 5.1 (Med… is 78.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback): 4.5% more intelligence, 26.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 78.5% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-low/claude-fable-5-1-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-low/claude-fable-5-1-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill