Claude Fable 5.1 vs Claude Opus 5.5

$2.98 / task
Wins 0 of 5 benchmarks
$1.34 / task
Wins 4 of 5 benchmarks
Humanity's Last Exam Humanity's Last Exam: Very hard expert questions across many fields, written to stump today’s models
Fable 5.153.8
Opus 5.554.7
Terminal-Bench 4.0 Terminal-Bench 4.0 · source setting 2: Agents use a terminal to complete executable coding, system administration and research tasks in the 4.0 suite
Fable 5.144.9
Opus 5.552.5
AutomationBench-AA AutomationBench-AA: Agents orchestrate SaaS workflows through APIs; objectives receive credit only when the task has no guardrail violation
Fable 5.154.7
Opus 5.561.2
Arena Text · creative writing Arena Text · creative writing: Human pairwise preferences in the stated text vote pool
Fable 5.1 · max1,485
Opus 5.5 · high1,519
MMMU-Pro (vision) MMMU-Pro (vision): College-level questions that require understanding images: charts, diagrams, photos
Fable 5.1—
Opus 5.585.7

Specs

SpecFable 5.1Opus 5.5
Input, per 1M$10$4
Output, per 1M$50$20
Cost per task?$2.98$1.34
Speed, tok/s5681
Context1M1M
WeightsClosedClosed
ReleasedSep 2026Sep 2026
See images✓✓
Read PDFsPartial✓
Hear audio——
Watch video——
Call tools✓✓
Force a tool callPartial—
Return strict JSON✓✓
Search the web?✓
Run code?✓
Use a computer?✓

What breaks when you switch

Fable 5.1 → Opus 5.5
No forced tool use›

Forced tool_choice any or tool returns HTTP 400; remove the forced choice.

Thinking is always on›

Disabled thinking or a manual budget returns HTTP 400; omit thinking or use adaptive thinking.

Remove sampling parameters›

Non-default temperature, top_p or top_k returns HTTP 400; omit these parameters and use prompting.

No assistant prefill›

Assistant prefill returns HTTP 400; use structured outputs or system instructions, with system instructions on Bedrock.

Old computer tool rejected · Claude API / Google Cloud›

The computer_20251124 tool returns HTTP 400 on the Claude API and Google Cloud; use computer_toolset_20260801 there.

Return thinking blocks unmodified›

Edited, reordered or partially dropped thinking blocks return HTTP 400; echo assistant messages complete and unmodified with tool results.

Opus 5.5 → Fable 5.1
Replace forced tool_choice›

Forced tool_choice returns HTTP 400; use auto with an explicit instruction and strict tools, or JSON outputs.

Adaptive thinking is always on›

Disabled thinking or manual budget_tokens returns HTTP 400; omit thinking or use adaptive thinking.

No non-default sampling values›

Non-default temperature, top_p or top_k returns HTTP 400; omit non-default sampling values.

Requires 30-day data retention · Claude API›

A Claude API organization or workspace without 30-day retention receives HTTP 400; configure workspace retention or contact the Anthropic account team.

Thinking blocks bind to conversations›

Where conversation binding is enforced, replaying an invalidated block returns HTTP 400; use the documented drop_block control to continue without it.

No assistant prefill›

Assistant prefill returns HTTP 400; use system prompt instructions instead.