Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs MiniMax-M3
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) by Anthropic or MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax? 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 20.4 points higher (49.6 vs 29.2) but costs 21× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $538; 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 29.2, and MiniMax-M3 when 29.2 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | MiniMax-M3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 29.2 | −41.1% MiniMax-M3 is 41.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $537.98 | −95.2% MiniMax-M3 is 95.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.37s | 25.47s | −70.2% MiniMax-M3 is 70.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
MiniMax-M3 vs Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 41.1% less intelligence, 95.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 70.2% 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.
- MiniMax-M3 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)MiniMax-M3Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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