Claude Fable 5.2 vs Claude Opus 5.5
Claude Fable 5.2 costs $8.00 / $40.00 and Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4.00 / $20.00 per million input / output tokens. At a typical 3:1 mix, Claude Opus 5.5 is 2× cheaper than Claude Fable 5.2. But Claude Fable 5.2 scores clearly higher on Epoch AI’s Capabilities Index (174 vs 169, beyond the margin of error).
Price
Claude Opus 5.5 is 2× cheaper per token
On a coding agent: $853 vs $1,521 a month (44% less)
Capability
Claude Fable 5.2 scores higher
Claude Fable 5.2 174 (170–179)
Claude Opus 5.5 169 (166–172)
Claude Opus 5.5 169 (166–172)
Best value at Claude Fable 5.2’s level
Claude Fable 5.2
The cheapest current model that scores level or higher, on a coding agent
Input
$8.00
per 1M
Output
$40.00
per 1M
Cached
$0.20
1M context
Input
$4.00
per 1M
Output
$20.00
per 1M
Cached
$0.20
1M context
Side by side
✓ marks the cheaper price, larger context window, bigger discount or higher score.
| Detail | Claude Fable 5.2 | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M tokens | ||
| Input | $8.00 | $4.00Lowest |
| Output | $40.00 | $20.00Lowest |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $16.00 | $8.00Lowest |
| Cached input | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Batch or off-peak discount | 50% (batch) | 50% (batch) |
| Long prompts | Same rate at any length | Same rate at any length |
| Limits and model | ||
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Capability score Epoch AI index | 174Highest | 169 |
| Arena text score 25 Sep 2026 | — | 1509 |
| Released | 9 Nov 2026 | 22 Sep 2026 |
| Open weights | No | No |
| Status | Current | Current |
| Checked | ||
| Price checked | 11 Nov 2026 Anthropic pricing | 11 Nov 2026 Anthropic pricing |
Monthly cost on three workloads
List prices, no batch discount. The cached share applies where a model has a cache rate.
| Workload | Claude Fable 5.2 | Claude Opus 5.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer chat assistant50,000 conversations a month, about 2,000 tokens in and 400 out each; 50% cachedPrice this workload in the calculator | $1,210 | $610Lower | $600 |
| Document Q&A (RAG)20,000 questions a month over retrieved documents, 12,000 in and 600 out; 30% cachedPrice this workload in the calculator | $1,838 | $926Lower | $912 |
| Coding agent400 tasks a month, 40 steps each with a growing context; 85% cachedPrice this workload in the calculator | $1,348 | $738Lower | $610 |
How they differ
- Claude Opus 5.5 is cheaper on input ($4 vs $8).
- Claude Opus 5.5 is cheaper on output ($20 vs $40), which matters most for long answers and reasoning models.
- On Epoch AI’s Capabilities Index, Claude Fable 5.2 scores clearly higher (174 vs 169), beyond the margin of error.
Recent changes
All changes- ▼ 20%Claude Fable 5.2 replaced Fable 5.1 at $8 / $40 per 1M tokens, 20% less, with cache reads at $0.20. Fable 5.1 stays available at $10 / $50.
$10 / $50→ $8 / $40 - ▼ 20%Claude Opus 5.5 launched at $4 / $20 per 1M tokens, 20% below Opus 5.
$5 / $25→ $4 / $20 - Claude Fable 5.1 replaced Fable 5 at the same $10 / $50, with cache reads cut to $0.25.
- Anthropic retired Claude Opus 4.1.
- Anthropic launched Claude Opus 5 at $5 / $25.
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