Claude Fable 5.1 vs Claude Opus 4.6
Wins 7 of 8 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Facts · Math · Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 0 of 8 areas
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Claude Fable 5.1 is the stronger all-rounder.Claude Opus 4.6 is cheaper.
Scores updated · 36 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the eight areas we test. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- CodingWriting and fixing software60Claude Fable 5.16 of 6 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking60Claude Fable 5.16 of 6 tests
- MathCompetition and research-level math30Claude Fable 5.13 of 3 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up21Claude Fable 5.12 of 3 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own10Claude Fable 5.11 of 1 test
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Claude Fable 5.11 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked10Claude Fable 5.11 of 1 test
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video00Even0 each · 1 tie
Agents, images and charts, long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
Claude Opus 4.6 costs 50% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Claude Fable 5.1 pulls ahead
- Extremely hard research-level math problemsFrontierMath Tier 4+61points ahead
- Long, multi-file coding tasks in real codebasesSWE-bench Pro+27.8points ahead
- Unpublished advanced math problemsFrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)+24.2points ahead
Where Claude Opus 4.6 pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+9.8points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 36 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Fable 5.1
- SWE-bench ProClaude Fable 5.1 by 27.881.253.4+27.8
- LMArena · WebDevClaude Fable 5.1 by 196 rating points17421546+196 rating
- LiveBench · Agentic CodingClaude Fable 5.1 by 17.166.149+17.1
- SWE-bench MultilingualClaude Fable 5.1 by 11.389.177.8+11.3
- SciCodeClaude Fable 5.1 by 11.263.151.9+11.2
- LiveBench · CodingClaude Fable 5.1 by 8.286.478.2+8.2
ReasoningClaude Fable 5.1
- ARC-AGI-2Claude Fable 5.1 by 21.29068.8+21.2
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Fable 5.1 by 19.259.139.9+19.2
- SimpleBenchClaude Fable 5.1 by 1986.667.6+19
- CritPtClaude Fable 5.1 by 17.129.712.6+17.1
- GPQA DiamondClaude Fable 5.1 by 4.193.789.6+4.1
- LiveBench · ReasoningClaude Fable 5.1 by 391.788.7+3
FactsClaude Fable 5.1
- SimpleQA VerifiedClaude Fable 5.1 by 23.870.847+23.8
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Fable 5.1 by 20.267.247+20.2
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationClaude Opus 4.6 by 9.827.437.2+9.8
MathClaude Fable 5.1
- FrontierMath Tier 4Claude Fable 5.1 by 6187.826.8+61
- FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)Claude Fable 5.1 by 24.290.266+24.2
- LiveBench · MathematicsClaude Fable 5.1 by 7.79789.3+7.7
Following instructionsClaude Fable 5.1
- LiveBench · Instruction FollowingClaude Fable 5.1 by 9.77363.3+9.7
Other results14 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexClaude Fable 5.1 by 33.581.648.1+33.5
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Fable 5.1 by 29.843.513.7+29.8
- SWE-bench MultimodalClaude Fable 5.1 by 27.654.727.1+27.6
- HiL-Bench (Tools-allowed)Claude Fable 5.1 by 23.261.538.3+23.2
- AA IntelligenceClaude Fable 5.1 by 21.553.431.9+21.5
- LVBenchClaude Fable 5.1 by 16.779.763+16.7
- HLE (with tools)Claude Fable 5.1 by 12.365.653.3+12.3
- OfficeQA ProClaude Fable 5.1 by 11.96957.1+11.9
- GDPval-AA (Elo)Claude Fable 5.1 by 116 rating points17351619+116 rating
- livebench_data_analysisClaude Fable 5.1 by 10.480.369.9+10.4
- AA Agentic IndexClaude Opus 4.6 by 9.65867.6+9.6
- OfficeQAClaude Fable 5.1 by 6.780.273.5+6.7
- livebench_languageClaude Fable 5.1 by 6.289.583.3+6.2
- ARC-AGI-1Claude Fable 5.1 by 4.597.593+4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Fable 5.1 or Claude Opus 4.6?
Claude Fable 5.1 wins seven of the eight areas we test: coding, agents, reasoning, facts, math, long documents and following instructions. Claude Opus 4.6 wins none, but costs 50% less. They are level on images and charts.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Fable 5.1. It wins 6 of the 6 coding tests both models report; Claude Opus 4.6 wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Fable 5.1 costs $10.00 per million input tokens and $50.00 per million output tokens; Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5.00 and $25.00. That makes Claude Opus 4.6 about 50% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 36 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 22 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 14 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.