Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, 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 19.1 points higher (53.9 vs 34.8) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($2862 vs $980; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.9 | 34.8 | −35.4% Claude Opus 5.5 (Low,… is 35.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,861.78 | $979.66 | −65.8% Claude Opus 5.5 (Low,… is 65.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 22.57s | 13.42s | −40.5% Claude Opus 5.5 (Low,… is 40.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback): 35.4% less intelligence, 65.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 40.5% faster 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 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 52.50 for $718.
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-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-low/claude-opus-5-5-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill