Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? 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 48.4 points higher (53.9 vs 5.5) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($2862 vs $246; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.9 | 5.5 | −89.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 89.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,861.78 | $245.82 | −91.4% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 91.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 22.57s | 9.60s | −57.5% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 57.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Low, Default Fallback): 89.8% less intelligence, 91.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 57.5% 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.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 38.20 for $190.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-low/nemotron-3-5-lightning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-low/nemotron-3-5-lightning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill