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Model comparison

Claude Fable 5.1 vs Qwen 3.8 Max

Anthropic against Qwen, compared on context, price, and attributed benchmark results.

Recorded profile verification October 2, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

Anthropic

Claude Fable 5.1

Frontier

vs

Qwen

Qwen 3.8 Max

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationClaude Fable 5.1Qwen 3.8 Max
ProviderAnthropicQwen
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window1M1M
Max output128KWinner: 131K
Input / 1M tokens$10Winner: $2
Output / 1M tokens$50Winner: $6
WeightsClosedClosed
ParametersNot verifiedUnverified2.4T total (MoE; managed active count not verified)
Reasoning levelslow, medium, high, xhigh, maxlow, medium, xhigh
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video
API model idclaude-fable-5-1qwen3.8-max
ReleasedSeptember 1, 2026August 3, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] · source date Claude Fable 5.1: 2026-10-0153Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified45
Humanity's Last Exam · source date Claude Fable 5.1: 2026-09-01, Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-08-14 (comparability not verified)6556.2
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date Claude Fable 5.1: 2026-09-2691.4Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified86.6
DeepSWE 1.1 · source date Claude Fable 5.1: 2026-09-0367.4Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond · source date Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified92.6

Dates beside benchmark scores refer to the linked source’s publication or capture date unless that source explicitly states when it measured the result. A shared URL alone does not establish comparable runs; unverified setups are marked. Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

Claude Fable 5.1: Standard $10/$50 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.25, versus Fable 5's $1; 5-minute writes $12.50 and 1-hour writes $20. Batch $5/$25. US-only inference adds 10% where supported. Adaptive thinking is always on, default effort high; knowledge cutoff Jun 2026. Retirement not sooner than September 1, 2027.

Qwen 3.8 Max: Model Studio International $2/$6 per MTok; implicit cache $0.25, explicit creation $2.50/read $0.17. China/Global $1.65/$4.951, cache $0.206, creation $2.063/read $0.137. Output 131,072 in both modes; input 991,808 non-thinking or 983,616 thinking, 1M context and 262,144 reasoning. Batch supported in China, unavailable in International/Global.

FrontierRecord checked October 1, 2026

Claude Fable 5.1

Claude Fable 5.1 is Anthropic's model for the most demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work at $10/$50 — Anthropic now recommends Opus 5.5 as the default for most workloads.

Best for

  • Frontier agents
  • Hardest reasoning work
  • Fable 5 workloads at the same price

Watch out

Standard token rates are 2.5x Opus 5.5's. Forced tool use errors; thinking blocks are model/conversation-bound, so editing earlier turns or switching models can invalidate them. Display updates and per-message effort are beta. Match benchmark settings and evaluate pinned workloads before migrating.

FrontierRecord checked October 2, 2026

Qwen 3.8 Max

Qwen 3.8 Max is Alibaba's managed multimodal flagship, with a vendor-described 2.4T MoE scale and 1M context.

Best for

  • Hosted agentic work
  • Long-context
  • Multimodal

Watch out

The text-only open checkpoint has 262,144 native context with extension and requires thinking; its 95B active count is not verified for the managed API. Managed Max accepts visual input and supports thinking on/off, xhigh default and low/medium/xhigh controls, with preserved thinking by default. API reasoning_effort and thinking_budget cannot both be set. Regional web-search and Batch support differ. Independent AA 0902 results identify a snapshot, not every alias version.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper on output at $6 per million tokens against $50 for Claude Fable 5.1 — about 8.3×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. This compares standard short-context token rates, not total cost per accepted task. Include input, cache, context tiers, schedules, retries and review in your pilot.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: Medium

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
  • No directly aligned benchmark setup — No benchmark has matching cited sources, source dates, units, effort and recorded run details on both models.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Older of the two catalog checks was 25 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Claude Fable 5.1 · Qwen 3.8 Max

Common questions

Claude Fable 5.1 vs Qwen 3.8 Max

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Claude Fable 5.1 or Qwen 3.8 Max cheaper for input?
Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper at $2 per million input tokens, against $10 for Claude Fable 5.1 — roughly 5.0× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Fable 5.1: Standard $10/$50 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.25, versus Fable 5's $1; 5-minute writes $12.50 and 1-hour writes $20. Batch $5/$25. US-only inference adds 10% where supported. Adaptive thinking is always on, default effort high; knowledge cutoff Jun 2026. Retirement not sooner than September 1, 2027. Qwen 3.8 Max: Model Studio International $2/$6 per MTok; implicit cache $0.25, explicit creation $2.50/read $0.17. China/Global $1.65/$4.951, cache $0.206, creation $2.063/read $0.137. Output 131,072 in both modes; input 991,808 non-thinking or 983,616 thinking, 1M context and 262,144 reasoning. Batch supported in China, unavailable in International/Global.
Is Claude Fable 5.1 or Qwen 3.8 Max cheaper for output?
Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper at $6 per million output tokens, against $50 for Claude Fable 5.1 — roughly 8.3× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Fable 5.1: Standard $10/$50 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $0.25, versus Fable 5's $1; 5-minute writes $12.50 and 1-hour writes $20. Batch $5/$25. US-only inference adds 10% where supported. Adaptive thinking is always on, default effort high; knowledge cutoff Jun 2026. Retirement not sooner than September 1, 2027. Qwen 3.8 Max: Model Studio International $2/$6 per MTok; implicit cache $0.25, explicit creation $2.50/read $0.17. China/Global $1.65/$4.951, cache $0.206, creation $2.063/read $0.137. Output 131,072 in both modes; input 991,808 non-thinking or 983,616 thinking, 1M context and 262,144 reasoning. Batch supported in China, unavailable in International/Global.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Fable 5.1 or Qwen 3.8 Max?
Both accept about 1M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Do Claude Fable 5.1 and Qwen 3.8 Max support the same reasoning levels?
Claude Fable 5.1 exposes low, medium, high, xhigh, max, while Qwen 3.8 Max exposes low, medium, xhigh.
Should I use Claude Fable 5.1 or Qwen 3.8 Max?
Both are classified in our frontier tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. Claude Fable 5.1 is a candidate for frontier agents; Qwen 3.8 Max is a candidate for hosted agentic work. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Qwen 3.8 Max costs $2 per 1M tokens versus $10 for Claude Fable 5.1 — a 5x difference at the headline tier.
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