Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, 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 20.7 points higher (62.2 vs 41.5) but costs 9.3× as much to run the benchmark ($11742 vs $1268; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… when you need intelligence above 41.5, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallba… when 41.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 62.2 | 41.5 | −33.3% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Hi… is 33.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,741.62 | $1,268.30 | −89.2% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Hi… is 89.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 102.03s | 18.54s | −81.8% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Hi… is 81.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 33.3% less intelligence, 89.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 81.8% 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 Sonnet 5.5 (High, 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-sonnet-5-5-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-xhigh/claude-sonnet-5-5-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill