Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Claude Haiku 5.5 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) 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 11.8 points higher (49.6 vs 37.8) but costs 119× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $94.1; 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 37.8, and Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) when 37.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 37.8 | −23.8% Claude Haiku 5.5 (Hig… is 23.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $94.07 | −99.2% Claude Haiku 5.5 (Hig… is 99.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 98.05s | 28.27s | −71.2% Claude Haiku 5.5 (Hig… is 71.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.10 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 23.8% less intelligence, 99.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 71.2% faster 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 (High) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
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-high · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/claude-haiku-5-5-high?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill