Claude Fable 5.2 vs Claude Opus 5.5
Claude Fable 5.2 (9 Nov 2026) and Claude Opus 5.5 (22 Sep 2026) are Anthropic's two most capable models on general sale. Claude Fable 5.2 lists at $8 / $40 per 1M tokens and Claude Opus 5.5 at $4 / $20, so Claude Fable 5.2 costs exactly twice as much per token.
Our verdict
Start with Claude Opus 5.5. Our example job costs $8 on Claude Opus 5.5 against $16 on Claude Fable 5.2 at list price. Claude Fable 5.2 is genuinely stronger: Artificial Analysis scores it 65 against 59 for Claude Opus 5.5 (10 Nov 2026 capture), and Anthropic reports 69.9% against 62.3% on the FrontierSWE v2 coding benchmark (Anthropic's own figures). Anthropic's own advice is to start with Claude Opus 5.5 for most workloads and move to Claude Fable 5.2 when Claude Opus 5.5 at higher effort still falls short. That is the right rule for a small business too: pay for Claude Fable 5.2 only on long multi-step agent work where a test on your own task shows the gain.
Benchmarks measure test tasks, not your business. Run a real job through both models before you commit.
Side by side
| Claude Fable 5.2 | Claude Opus 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Lab | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| List price per 1M tokens (input / output) | $8 / $40 | $4 / $20 |
| Scheduled price | - | - |
| Price notes | Cache reads $0.20 per 1M; batch $4 / $20; fast mode $16 / $80. | Cache reads $0.20 per 1M; fast mode $8 / $40. |
| Example job at list price | $16 | $8 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Released | ||
| Open weights | No | No |
1M tokens in and 200K tokens out. List price only: models write different amounts, so a finished job can cost more or less. (1,000,000 / 200,000)
Benchmark rows are left out of this comparison because we do not have comparable independent scores for both models.
Common questions
Is Claude Fable 5.2 better than Claude Opus 5.5?
Yes, on both independent and vendor tests. Artificial Analysis scores Fable 5.2 at 65 and Opus 5.5 at 59 on its Intelligence Index (captured 2026-11-10), and Anthropic reports Fable 5.2 ahead on FrontierSWE v2 coding (69.9% against 62.3%, Anthropic's own figures). Better does not mean worth it for every job: it costs twice as much.
How much more does Fable 5.2 cost than Opus 5.5?
Fable 5.2 lists at $8 in and $40 out per 1M tokens against $4 and $20 for Opus 5.5, so our example job (1M tokens in, 200K out) costs $16 against $8. Cache reads cost $0.20 per 1M on both.
Which should a small business use?
Opus 5.5 for hard work, and the cheaper Sonnet 5.5 for everyday writing and coding. Fable 5.2 earns its price on long agent runs, such as a multi-hour coding or research task, where a cheaper model keeps failing your own test.
Sources
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