Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 4 Carbon (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) by Google? 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 8.0 points higher (62.2 vs 54.2) but costs 2.1× as much to run the benchmark ($11742 vs $5725; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 4 Carbon (Low).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 62.2 | 54.2 | −12.9% Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is 12.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,741.62 | $5,725.02 | −51.2% Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is 51.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 102.03s | 9.45s | −90.7% Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is 90.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 12.9% less intelligence, 51.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.7% 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.
- Gemini 4 Carbon (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 57.40 for $4766.
Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Gemini 4 Carbon (Low)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-xhigh/gemini-4-carbon-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2-xhigh/gemini-4-carbon-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill