Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) by OpenAI? 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 23.6 points higher (49.6 vs 26.0) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $987; 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 26.0, and GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) when 26.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 26.0 | −47.6% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 47.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $986.85 | −91.2% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 91.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 123.77s | 16.68s | −86.5% GPT-5.5 Instant (June… is 86.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 47.6% less intelligence, 91.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.5% 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.
- GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) 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/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill