Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8 — Price, Context, and Capability Compared
Verdict
Claude Fable 5 costs 2.0× more per blended million tokens than Claude Opus 4.8. Claude Fable 5 has the larger context window (1,000,000 tokens). Default to Claude Opus 4.8 unless you specifically need Claude Fable 5's edge.
Spec comparison
| Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (input) | $10.00/M | $5.00/M ✓ |
| Price (output) | $50.00/M | $25.00/M ✓ |
| Blended price | $20.00/M | $10.00/M ✓ |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens ✓ | 500,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens ✓ | 64,000 tokens |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | Yes |
| Released | 2026-05 | 2026-04 |
| Speed | 41 t/s | 58 t/s ✓ |
Cost at scale (3:1 blended)
| Tokens / month | Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $20.00 | $10.00 | $10.00 (2.0×) |
| 10,000,000 | $200.00 | $100.00 | $100.00 (2.0×) |
| 100,000,000 | $2000.00 | $1000.00 | $1000.00 (2.0×) |
Choose Claude Fable 5 if…
- ✓Most capable widely-released Claude
- ✓1M-token context
- ✓Extended-thinking mode for hard reasoning
- ✓The most demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work.
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if…
- ✓Elite coding and multi-step reasoning
- ✓Strong instruction following on ambiguous prompts
- ✓Extended-thinking mode
- ✓Complex, multi-step tasks where Fable 5’s premium isn’t justified.
Run this exact matchup right now
Send the same prompt to Claude Fable 5 and Claude Opus 4.8 side by side and see the outputs yourself.
Try Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8 FreeFAQ
Is Claude Fable 5 cheaper than Claude Opus 4.8?
Claude Opus 4.8 is cheaper, at $10.00 per million blended tokens vs $20.00 for Claude Fable 5.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?
Claude Fable 5 has the larger context window: 1,000,000 tokens vs 500,000.
Can Claude Fable 5 replace Claude Opus 4.8 for coding?
Both are viable for coding. Most capable widely-released Claude (Claude Fable 5) vs Elite coding and multi-step reasoning (Claude Opus 4.8) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.
Which is faster, Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?
Claude Opus 4.8 is faster: 58 t/s vs 41 t/s, measured on our speed benchmarks.
Related
Pricing verified 2026-06-07. Specs verified 2026-08-08.
