Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Qwen3.8 27B (Low) 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 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 48.9 points higher (64.6 vs 15.7) but costs 15× as much to run the benchmark ($22191 vs $1460; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 15.7, and Qwen3.8 27B (Low) when 15.7 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 64.6 | 15.7 | −75.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 75.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $22,191.42 | $1,460.07 | −93.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 93.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 258.66s | 57.78s | −77.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 77.7% 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 (Low) vs Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback): 75.7% less intelligence, 93.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.7% 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.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.60 for $1124.
Claude Fable 5.2 (Max, Default Fallback)Qwen3.8 27B (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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