Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (High, 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 (Low, Default Fallback) scores 2.1 points higher (53.9 vs 51.8) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($2862 vs $2716; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.9 | 51.8 | −3.9% Claude Opus 5.5 (High… is 3.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,861.78 | $2,715.98 | −5.1% Claude Opus 5.5 (High… is 5.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 22.57s | 54.27s | +140.5% Claude Opus 5.5 (High… is 140.5% 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 (High, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback): 3.9% less intelligence, 5.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 140.5% 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 (High, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.60 for $1124.
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-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-low/claude-opus-5-5-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill