Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) vs gpt-oss-120b (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or gpt-oss-120b (High) by OpenAI? 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 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 60.8 points higher (64.6 vs 3.8) but costs 84× as much to run the benchmark ($22191 vs $265; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 3.8, and gpt-oss-120b (High) when 3.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) | gpt-oss-120b (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 64.6 | 3.8 | −94.1% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 94.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $22,191.42 | $264.99 | −98.8% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 98.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 258.66s | 12.67s | −95.1% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 95.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $8.00 / $40.0 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
gpt-oss-120b (High) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback): 94.1% less intelligence, 98.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 95.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- gpt-oss-120b (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 38.20 for $190.
Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback)gpt-oss-120b (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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