Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 0.2 points higher (53.4 vs 53.2) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($13129 vs $9063; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallba….
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.4 | 53.2 | −0.4% Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhi… is 0.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $13,128.86 | $9,063.11 | −31.0% Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhi… is 31.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 201.57s | 104.03s | −48.4% Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhi… is 48.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback): 0.4% less intelligence, 31.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 48.4% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 57.60 for $8708.
- 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.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1/claude-fable-5-1-xhigh · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1/claude-fable-5-1-xhigh?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill