Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, 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 14.7 points higher (64.6 vs 49.9) but costs 7.6× as much to run the benchmark ($22191 vs $2903; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 49.9, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallb… when 49.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 64.6 | 49.9 | −22.8% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xh… is 22.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $22,191.42 | $2,902.50 | −86.9% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xh… is 86.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 258.66s | 42.84s | −83.4% Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xh… is 83.4% 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback): 22.8% less intelligence, 86.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 83.4% faster 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 (Xhigh, 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/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2/claude-sonnet-5-5-xhigh?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill