Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Grok 4.5 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.5 (High) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 14.6 points higher (53.4 vs 38.8) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($13129 vs $1244; 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 38.8, and Grok 4.5 (High) when 38.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) | Grok 4.5 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.4 | 38.8 | −27.3% Grok 4.5 (High) is 27.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $13,128.86 | $1,243.85 | −90.5% Grok 4.5 (High) is 90.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 224.39s | 19.45s | −91.3% Grok 4.5 (High) is 91.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.5 (High) vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback): 27.3% less intelligence, 90.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 91.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
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.
- Grok 4.5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback)Grok 4.5 (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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