Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) scores 5.4 points higher (49.6 vs 44.2) but costs 5.0× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $2242; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) when you need intelligence above 44.2, and Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) when 44.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 44.2 | −10.9% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 10.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $2,241.91 | −79.9% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 79.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.47s | 37.86s | −55.7% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 55.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 10.9% less intelligence, 79.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 55.7% 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 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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