Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 8.7 points higher (57.6 vs 48.9) but costs 2.2× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $3983; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallb….
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 48.9 | 57.6 | +17.8% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 17.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,983.28 | $8,708.20 | +118.6% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 2.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.16s | 626.13s | +4657.8% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 4657.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback): 17.8% more intelligence, 118.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 4657.8% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- 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.
- Claude Opus 5.5 (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-medium/claude-opus-5-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-medium/claude-opus-5-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill