Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) by Alibaba? 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 42.1 points higher (62.2 vs 20.1) but costs 4.9× as much to run the benchmark ($11742 vs $2390; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… when you need intelligence above 20.1, and Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) when 20.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 62.2 | 20.1 | −67.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 67.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,741.62 | $2,390.04 | −79.6% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 79.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 102.03s | 62.32s | −38.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 38.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 67.7% less intelligence, 79.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 38.9% 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.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.60 for $1124.
Claude Fable 5.2 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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