Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-10.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallbac… scores 28.1 points higher (61.8 vs 33.7) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($7106 vs $6354; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 Max (0902).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 61.8 | 33.7 | −45.5% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 45.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,105.77 | $6,353.83 | −10.6% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 10.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 36.05s | 65.50s | +81.7% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 81.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback): 45.5% less intelligence, 10.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 81.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) scores 58.30 for $5903.
Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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