Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… scores 3.5 points higher (57.4 vs 53.9) but costs 1.7× as much to run the benchmark ($4766 vs $2862; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallbac… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.9 | 57.4 | +6.5% Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhig… is 6.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,861.78 | $4,765.91 | +66.5% Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhig… is 66.5% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 22.57s | 177.18s | +685.0% Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhig… is 685.0% 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback): 6.5% more intelligence, 66.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 685.0% 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 (Xhigh, 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-low/claude-opus-5-5-xhigh · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-low/claude-opus-5-5-xhigh?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill