Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh vs Claude Opus 5 Max compared

Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh leads the intelligence index 50.0 to 44.2. Claude Opus 5 Max costs 50% less on blended price. See token costs, speed and which to pick.

Metric	Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)	Claude Opus 5 (Max)
Intelligence Index	50.0	44.2
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$10.00	$5.00
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$50.00	$25.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	61	50
Time to first token	98s	62s
Release date	2026-09-01	2026-07-24

Metric

Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)

Claude Opus 5 (Max)

Intelligence Index

50.0

44.2

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$10.00

$5.00

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$50.00

$25.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

Time to first token

98s

62s

Release date

2026-09-01

2026-07-24

If you already build on Anthropic, both Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) and Claude Opus 5 (Max) are on the menu, and they are not interchangeable. The headline gap is on the intelligence index, where Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh scores 50.0 and Claude Opus 5 Max 44.2. This page is written automatically from catalogue numbers only: benchmark scores, list prices and measured speed.

How the intelligence index compares

Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh records 50.0 on the intelligence index and Claude Opus 5 Max records 44.2. That is a clear margin for an index that averages many evaluations.

Across the 109 active models with an intelligence score in the catalogue, Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh ranks 18th and Claude Opus 5 Max ranks 26th.

There are no coding or math index scores for either model in the catalogue, which keeps this comparison at the aggregate level.

Price per token

Per million tokens, Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh charges $10.00 for input and $50.00 for output, while Claude Opus 5 Max charges $5.00 and $25.00. For output tokens, Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh is twice the price of Claude Opus 5 Max.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $20.00 on Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh and $10.00 on Claude Opus 5 Max. Scale it up to writing 2,000 drafts of 2,000 output tokens from 300-token prompts and the bill is $206 for Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh against $103 for Claude Opus 5 Max. On a 3:1 blend of input to output tokens, that works out to $20.00 versus $10.00 per million.

Value for money

Per point of intelligence index, Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh costs $0.40 of blended price per million tokens and Claude Opus 5 Max $0.23. So Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh buys its higher score at a premium, while Claude Opus 5 Max is the value pick, paying 43% less per point.

Speed and latency

Once a response is under way, Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh produces roughly 61 tokens per second against 50 tokens per second for Claude Opus 5 Max. That makes Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh roughly 1.2 times as fast at writing. The wait for the first token averages 98 seconds on Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh against 62 seconds on Claude Opus 5 Max. The faster writer, Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh, gives away too much at the start to win on time: counting the first-token wait, Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first for any reply shorter than about 9,700 tokens. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

Add the two numbers up for a 1,000-token reply and Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first: 114 seconds for Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh, 82 seconds for Claude Opus 5 Max.

Release timing

Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh arrived on September 1, 2026, 39 days after Claude Opus 5 Max (July 24, 2026). They are effectively contemporaries.

FAQ

Is Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh better than Claude Opus 5 Max?

Neither wins everywhere: Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh scores higher on the intelligence index, 50.0 to 44.2; Claude Opus 5 Max is 50% cheaper on blended price; Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh streams output 1.2 times as fast; and Claude Opus 5 Max reaches its first token sooner.

When were Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh and Claude Opus 5 Max released?

Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh is newer. It was released on September 1, 2026, 39 days after Claude Opus 5 Max (July 24, 2026).

How much do Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh and Claude Opus 5 Max cost?

Claude Opus 5 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh lists $10.00 per million input tokens and $50.00 per million output tokens; Claude Opus 5 Max lists $5.00 and $25.00. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $20.00 against $10.00.

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Which model has lower latency?

Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh generates output faster, at 61 tokens per second against 50 tokens per second. Claude Opus 5 Max reaches its first token sooner (62 seconds against 98 seconds). Counting the first-token wait, Claude Opus 5 Max finishes first for any reply shorter than about 9,700 tokens.

Final whistle

Bottom line: neither Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh nor Claude Opus 5 Max wins outright; each leads where the other is weaker. Pick Claude Fable 5.1 Xhigh if you need the higher overall score (50.0 against 44.2) and you generate very long outputs, beyond about 9,700 tokens. Pick Claude Opus 5 Max if cost matters ($25.00 against $50.00 per million output tokens) and users are waiting on the first word.

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) and Claude Opus 5 (Max) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.