Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) scores 11.4 points higher (49.6 vs 38.2) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $6998; both flagship class). Pick Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (Max).
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 38.2 | −23.0% Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) is 23.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $6,998.25 | −37.3% Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) is 37.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.37s | 184.22s | +115.8% Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) is 115.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 23.0% less intelligence, 37.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 115.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
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 Sonnet 5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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