Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 5
Claude Opus 5 is cheaper for every workload modelled here.
List prices checked
Specifications and rates
| Property | Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input per 1M | $10.00 | $5.00 |
| Output per 1M | $50.00 | $25.00 |
| Cached input per 1M | $1.00 | $0.500 |
| Blended (3:1) | $20.00 | $10.00 |
| Context window | 200K | 200K |
| Max output | 64K | 64K |
| Inputs accepted | text, image | text, image |
Source: Anthropic pricing (August 2026) · Anthropic pricing (August 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.
Monthly cost by workload
Identical token volumes through both rate cards. Output-heavy profiles are where the ranking flips.
| Workload | Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 5 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-app chat assistantA support or help assistant handling a few thousand conversations a month, with short prompts and short answers. | $450 | $225 | Claude Opus 5saves $225/mo (50%) |
| RAG over documentsRetrieval-augmented answering where each request stuffs several retrieved passages into the prompt, so input dominates. | $3,750 | $1,875 | Claude Opus 5saves $1,875/mo (50%) |
| Coding agentAn agentic loop that reads files and writes patches, generating heavy output and re-sending large context on every turn. | $9,000 | $4,500 | Claude Opus 5saves $4,500/mo (50%) |
What each one is for
Claude Fable 5
by Anthropic
Anthropic's top model for long-running agentic work, priced at twice Opus 5. Worth it only where a longer autonomous run genuinely replaces human supervision, since the token cost compounds across a multi-hour session.
Claude Opus 5
by Anthropic
Anthropic's model for complex agentic coding and enterprise work. Prompt caching cuts repeated input to a tenth of the base rate, which for an agent resending the same context every turn matters more than the headline price.
Common questions
- Is Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 5 cheaper in 2026?
- Claude Opus 5, for every workload modelled here. On a blended 3:1 basis it costs $10.00 per million tokens against Claude Fable 5's $20.00.
- Which has the larger context window?
- Both accept 200K tokens.
- Which is cheaper for output-heavy work like agents?
- Claude Opus 5, at $25.00 per million output tokens against $50.00. Reasoning tokens bill as output, so for agentic loops this axis usually decides the invoice regardless of what the input rates look like.
- What is not included in these figures?
- Batch-processing discounts, fine-tuning, long-context surcharges above a provider's standard tier, and any enterprise agreement. These are published pay-as-you-go list prices, checked against each provider's own pricing page on the date shown.