Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Kimi K3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi? 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 19.5 points higher (49.6 vs 30.1) but costs 9.4× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $1190; 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 30.1, and Kimi K3 (Low) when 30.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Kimi K3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 30.1 | −39.3% Kimi K3 (Low) is 39.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $1,190.42 | −89.3% Kimi K3 (Low) is 89.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.62s | 56.42s | −34.1% Kimi K3 (Low) is 34.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Low) vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 39.3% less intelligence, 89.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 34.1% 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.
- Kimi K3 (Low) 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)Kimi K3 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/kimi-k3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5/kimi-k3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill