Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) scores 10.1 points higher (49.6 vs 39.5) but costs 17× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $672; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) when you need intelligence above 39.5, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) when 39.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 39.5 | −20.4% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 20.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $671.96 | −94.0% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 94.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.62s | 15.00s | −82.5% DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (… is 82.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.29 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 20.4% less intelligence, 94.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 82.5% 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.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/deepseek-v4-1-flash · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/deepseek-v4-1-flash?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill