Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 5
Claude Fable 5 and Claude Opus 5 are Anthropic's two frontier tiers. Opus 5, released seven weeks later, scores one Intelligence Index point higher (63 vs 62) at half the price — $5/$25 against Fable 5's $10/$50 per million tokens. Fable 5 counters with faster output, 67 versus 54 tokens per second. Most workloads should default to Opus 5.
Side by side
| Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Released | 2026-06-09 | 2026-07-24 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Modalities in | text, image | text, image |
| Input $/MTok | $10 | $5 |
| Output $/MTok | $50 | $25 |
| Open weights | No | No |
Benchmark deltas
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 5 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 62 | 63 | -1 |
Δ is Claude Fable 5 minus Claude Opus 5, in points. Shaded cell wins the row. Dashed values are vendor-published, not yet reproduced — methodology.
Cost calculator
- Claude Fable 5
- $1,000/mo
- Claude Opus 5
- $500/mo
- Difference
- $500/mo
List prices as of 2026-08-11; excludes caching, batch, and long-context tiers — see model pages for tier notes.
Verdict
This is the rare comparison where the newer, cheaper sibling wins the benchmark: Opus 5 edges Fable 5 on the Intelligence Index at exactly half the token price. Fable 5's case rests on throughput — 25% faster output — and on workload-specific behavior differences practitioners report but public benchmarks compress. At $10/$50, Fable 5 is the most expensive API in our tracked set; unless latency-sensitive premium workloads justify it, Opus 5 is the default Anthropic frontier pick as of August 2026.
Verdicts are analysis, not measurement, and are labeled as such per our editorial policy.
FAQ
- Is Claude Fable 5 cheaper than Claude Opus 5?
- No. Claude Opus 5 is cheaper: $5 input / $25 output per million tokens against $10 / $50 for Claude Fable 5 (prices as of August 11, 2026).
- Which has the longer context window — Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 5?
- They match: both accept 1M tokens of context.
- Which is the more capable model, Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 5?
- Claude Opus 5 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 63 (measured August 11, 2026) against 62 for Claude Fable 5 (measured August 11, 2026).
Related news
Comparison published August 11, 2026; underlying data last changed August 11, 2026.