Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) scores 12.8 points higher (46.8 vs 34.0) but costs 2.0× as much to run the benchmark ($3158 vs $1614; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.6 Flash (High).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 46.8 | 34.0 | −27.4% Gemini 3.6 Flash (Hig… is 27.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,157.66 | $1,614.42 | −48.9% Gemini 3.6 Flash (Hig… is 48.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.73s | 20.26s | +88.8% Gemini 3.6 Flash (Hig… is 88.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback): 27.4% less intelligence, 48.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 88.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
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.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback)Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-low/gemini-3-6-flash · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-low/gemini-3-6-flash?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill