Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) scores 6.2 points higher (49.6 vs 43.4) but costs 34× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $330; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) when you need intelligence above 43.4, and Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) when 43.4 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 43.4 | −12.5% Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) is 12.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $330.25 | −97.0% Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) is 97.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.47s | 327.94s | +283.7% Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) is 283.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.10 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 12.5% less intelligence, 97.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 283.7% slower end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 57.60 for $8708.
- Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/claude-haiku-5-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/claude-haiku-5-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill