Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Granite 4.2 8B
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Granite 4.2 8B by IBM? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) scores 38.5 points higher (49.6 vs 11.1) but costs 210× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $53.1; 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 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Granite 4.2 8B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 11.1 | −77.6% Granite 4.2 8B is 77.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $53.07 | −99.5% Granite 4.2 8B is 99.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 71.92s | 39.25s | −45.4% Granite 4.2 8B is 45.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.06 / $0.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Granite 4.2 8B vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 77.6% less intelligence, 99.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 45.4% 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.
- Granite 4.2 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (High) scores 32.90 for $47.9.
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)Granite 4.2 8BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
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