Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google? 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 34.5 points higher (64.6 vs 30.1) but costs 4.9× as much to run the benchmark ($22191 vs $4547; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 30.1, and Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when 30.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 64.6 | 30.1 | −53.4% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 53.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $22,191.42 | $4,546.75 | −79.5% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 79.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 258.66s | 17.86s | −93.1% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 93.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback): 53.4% less intelligence, 79.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.1% 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.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Fable 5.2 (Medium, Default Fallback) scores 56.40 for $3360.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2/gemini-3-8-flash-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-2/gemini-3-8-flash-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill