Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Grok 4.6 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.6 (Low) 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 14.5 points higher (49.6 vs 35.1) but costs 18× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $614; 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 35.1, and Grok 4.6 (Low) when 35.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Grok 4.6 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 35.1 | −29.2% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 29.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $613.92 | −94.5% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 94.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.37s | 14.47s | −83.1% Grok 4.6 (Low) is 83.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Low) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 29.2% less intelligence, 94.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 83.1% 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 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)Grok 4.6 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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