Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… scores 14.0 points higher (62.2 vs 48.2) but costs 5.8× as much to run the benchmark ($11742 vs $2031; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… when you need intelligence above 48.2, and Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallba… when 48.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 62.2 | 48.2 | −22.5% Claude Opus 5.5 (Medi… is 22.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,741.62 | $2,031.27 | −82.7% Claude Opus 5.5 (Medi… is 82.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 102.03s | 30.86s | −69.8% Claude Opus 5.5 (Medi… is 69.8% 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 (Medium, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 22.5% less intelligence, 82.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 69.8% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, 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-xhigh/claude-opus-5-5-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-xhigh/claude-opus-5-5-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill