Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Mercury 2
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or Mercury 2 by Inception? 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 38.8 points higher (49.6 vs 10.8) but costs 106× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $105; 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 10.8, and Mercury 2 when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Mercury 2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 10.8 | −78.2% Mercury 2 is 78.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $104.94 | −99.1% Mercury 2 is 99.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 77.70s | 6.65s | −91.4% Mercury 2 is 91.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Mercury 2 vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 78.2% less intelligence, 99.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 91.4% 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.
- Mercury 2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)Mercury 2Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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