Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Grok 4.6 (High)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.6 (High) by SpaceXAI? 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 5.3 points higher (49.6 vs 44.3) but costs 5.7× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $1963; 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 44.3, and Grok 4.6 (High) when 44.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Grok 4.6 (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 44.3 | −10.7% Grok 4.6 (High) is 10.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $1,962.90 | −82.4% Grok 4.6 (High) is 82.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.62s | 34.90s | −59.2% Grok 4.6 (High) is 59.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (High) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 10.7% less intelligence, 82.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 59.2% 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.
- Grok 4.6 (High) 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)Grok 4.6 (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/grok-4-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/grok-4-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill