Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) 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 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 29.1 points higher (53.4 vs 24.3) but costs 20× as much to run the benchmark ($13129 vs $653; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 24.3, and Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) when 24.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.4 | 24.3 | −54.5% Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is 54.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $13,128.86 | $652.70 | −95.0% Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is 95.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 201.58s | 8.64s | −95.7% Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is 95.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback): 54.5% less intelligence, 95.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 95.7% 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 Sonnet 5 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1/claude-sonnet-5-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1/claude-sonnet-5-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill