Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, 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 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 10.1 points higher (64.6 vs 54.5) but costs 2.8× as much to run the benchmark ($22191 vs $7981; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac….
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 64.6 | 54.5 | −15.6% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 15.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $22,191.42 | $7,980.63 | −64.0% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 64.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 258.66s | 500.27s | +93.4% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Ma… is 93.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback): 15.6% less intelligence, 64.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.4% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Fable 5.2 (High, Default Fallback) scores 61.80 for $7106.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2/claude-sonnet-5-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2/claude-sonnet-5-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill