Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs GPT-5 mini (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or GPT-5 mini (High) 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 32.8 points higher (49.6 vs 16.8) but costs 59× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $189; 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 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | GPT-5 mini (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 16.8 | −66.1% GPT-5 mini (High) is 66.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $188.66 | −98.3% GPT-5 mini (High) is 98.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 77.70s | 58.72s | −24.4% GPT-5 mini (High) is 24.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.25 / $2.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5 mini (High) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 66.1% less intelligence, 98.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 24.4% 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 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)GPT-5 mini (High)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/gpt-5-mini · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/gpt-5-mini?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill