Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5 (Max) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-10.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… scores 18.0 points higher (62.2 vs 44.2) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($11742 vs $9010; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Opus 5 (Max).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 62.2 | 44.2 | −28.9% Claude Opus 5 (Max) is 28.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,741.62 | $9,009.82 | −23.3% Claude Opus 5 (Max) is 23.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 102.03s | 72.88s | −28.6% Claude Opus 5 (Max) is 28.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $5.00 / $25.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Opus 5 (Max) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 28.9% less intelligence, 23.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 28.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Opus 5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) scores 61.80 for $7106.
Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Claude Opus 5 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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