Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 31.2 points higher (53.4 vs 22.2) but costs 36× as much to run the benchmark ($13129 vs $366; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 22.2, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite when 22.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.4 | 22.2 | −58.4% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 58.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $13,128.86 | $365.63 | −97.2% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 97.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 224.30s | 9.59s | −95.7% Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 95.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.30 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback): 58.4% less intelligence, 97.2% 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.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1/gemini-3-5-flash-lite · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1/gemini-3-5-flash-lite?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill