Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Medium, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Fable 5.2 (Medium, Default Fallback) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-10.
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallbac… scores 5.4 points higher (61.8 vs 56.4) but costs 2.1× as much to run the benchmark ($7106 vs $3360; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Fable 5.2 (Medium, Default Fallb….
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) | Claude Fable 5.2 (Medium, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 61.8 | 56.4 | −8.7% Claude Fable 5.2 (Med… is 8.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,105.77 | $3,359.66 | −52.7% Claude Fable 5.2 (Med… is 52.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 36.05s | 27.53s | −23.6% Claude Fable 5.2 (Med… is 23.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $8.00 / $40.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Fable 5.2 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback): 8.7% less intelligence, 52.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 23.6% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Fable 5.2 (Medium, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-high/claude-fable-5-2-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-high/claude-fable-5-2-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill