Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) by SpaceXAI? 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 35.6 points higher (49.6 vs 14.0) but costs 45× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $250; 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 14.0, and Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) when 14.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 14.0 | −71.8% Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoni… is 71.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $250.37 | −97.8% Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoni… is 97.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.47s | 5.89s | −93.1% Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoni… is 93.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $1.25 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 71.8% less intelligence, 97.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.1% 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.
- Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/grok-4-3-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/grok-4-3-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill