Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, 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 Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 5.2 points higher (59.1 vs 53.9) but costs 3.1× as much to run the benchmark ($8910 vs $2862; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 53.9, and Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) when 53.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.9 | 59.1 | +9.6% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 9.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,861.78 | $8,909.67 | +211.3% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 3.1× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 22.57s | 679.82s | +2912.1% Claude Opus 5.5 (Max,… is 2912.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback): 9.6% more intelligence, 211.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 2912.1% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.60 for $1124.
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) scores 61.80 for $7106.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-low/claude-opus-5-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-low/claude-opus-5-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill