Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) by SpaceXAI? 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… scores 9.0 points higher (53.2 vs 44.2) but costs 4.0× as much to run the benchmark ($9063 vs $2242; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… when you need intelligence above 44.2, and Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) when 44.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.2 | 44.2 | −16.9% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 16.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $9,063.11 | $2,241.91 | −75.3% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 75.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 111.44s | 47.23s | −57.6% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 57.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 16.9% less intelligence, 75.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 57.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 57.60 for $8708.
- Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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