Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI? 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 15.8 points higher (49.6 vs 33.8) but costs 5.3× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $2095; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) when you need intelligence above 33.8, and GPT-5.5 (Medium) when 33.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 33.8 | −31.9% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 31.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $2,095.12 | −81.2% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 81.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.37s | 11.17s | −86.9% GPT-5.5 (Medium) is 86.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $5.00 / $30.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 31.9% less intelligence, 81.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.9% faster 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.
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)GPT-5.5 (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/gpt-5-5-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/gpt-5-5-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill