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Model comparison

Claude Fable 5 vs MiniMax M3

Anthropic against MiniMax, 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

Frontier

vs

MiniMax

MiniMax M3

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationClaude Fable 5MiniMax M3
ProviderAnthropicMiniMax
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window1M1M
Max output128KNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$10Winner: $0.30
Output / 1M tokens$50Winner: $1.20
WeightsClosedOpen
ParametersNot verifiedUnverified428B total / 23B active (MoE)
Reasoning levelslow, medium, high, xhigh, maxNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video
LicenseNot verifiedUnverifiedMiniMax Community License
API model idclaude-fable-5MiniMax-M3
ReleasedJune 9, 2026June 1, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified29
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date MiniMax M3: 2026-06-01Not verifiedUnverified66

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.

  • Source date2026-10-01
    Artificial Analysis (MiniMax-M3)

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check the cited source and its date.

  • Source date2026-06-01
    MiniMax vendor report: Terminus2, 8CPU/16GB sandbox, 2h, 128K generation budget; budget is not an API cap

    Agentic terminal work: multi-step tasks executed in a sandboxed shell environment.

    Comparable with caveatNot comparable with Terminal-Bench 3.0 or 4.0 (different task sets) or v1; harness configuration (container, time limits) also shifts results.

Pricing tiers

Claude Fable 5: Standard $10/$50 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $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. Reliable knowledge cutoff Jan 2026; retirement not sooner than June 9, 2027. Access was suspended June 12 and restored July 1, 2026.

MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.

FrontierRecord checked October 1, 2026

Claude Fable 5

Claude Fable 5 is Anthropic's June 2026 long-running-agent model, now 'Active (legacy)' behind Fable 5.1 at the same $10/$50 price.

Best for

  • Long-running agents
  • Frontier reasoning
  • Enterprise work

Watch out

Superseded: Fable 5.1 has the same base input/output prices and lower cache-read pricing ($0.25 vs $1 per million tokens). Savings depend on eligible cached requests; evaluate the successor against your pinned workloads.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked October 2, 2026

MiniMax M3

MiniMax M3 is an open-weight (community license) 428B MoE with native multimodal and 1M context.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Multimodal
  • Long-context

Watch out

Commercial checkpoint use requires Built with MiniMax M3 attribution and a one-time notice at or below $20M yearly revenue from the relevant products/services; above that threshold prior written authorization is required. Keep copyright/permission notices and follow prohibited-use terms. The checkpoint documents enabled/adaptive/disabled thinking. Hosted OpenAI compatibility defaults thinking on; Anthropic compatibility defaults it off and enables it with adaptive. Preview effort levels do not apply to M3. A hard output cap remains unverified.

When the cheaper one wins

MiniMax M3 is cheaper on output at $1.20 per million tokens against $50 for Claude Fable 5 — about 42×. 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.
  • 2/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, parameter count, reasoning levels.
  • 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 · MiniMax M3

Common questions

Claude Fable 5 vs MiniMax M3

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

Is Claude Fable 5 or MiniMax M3 cheaper for input?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $0.30 per million input tokens, against $10 for Claude Fable 5 — roughly 33× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Fable 5: Standard $10/$50 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $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. Reliable knowledge cutoff Jan 2026; retirement not sooner than June 9, 2027. Access was suspended June 12 and restored July 1, 2026. MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.
Is Claude Fable 5 or MiniMax M3 cheaper for output?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper at $1.20 per million output tokens, against $50 for Claude Fable 5 — roughly 42× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; Claude Fable 5: Standard $10/$50 per MTok with no long-context surcharge. Cache reads $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. Reliable knowledge cutoff Jan 2026; retirement not sooner than June 9, 2027. Access was suspended June 12 and restored July 1, 2026. MiniMax M3: MiniMax Standard $0.30/$1.20 per MTok through 512K input; above 512K $0.60/$2.40. Cache reads $0.06/$0.12. Priority is 1.5x the applicable Standard rate. The page labels these current rates permanent 50% off; future tariffs are not established. Subscription-key Credits/M Plan and PAYG balance are separate.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Fable 5 or MiniMax M3?
Both accept about 1M tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Should I use Claude Fable 5 or MiniMax M3?
Both are classified in our frontier tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. Claude Fable 5 is a candidate for long-running agents; MiniMax M3 is a candidate for open-weight deployments. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.
Can I self-host Claude Fable 5 or MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Claude Fable 5 is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

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

  • Input price: MiniMax M3 costs $0.30 per 1M tokens versus $10 for Claude Fable 5 — a 33.3x difference at the headline tier.
  • Deployment: MiniMax M3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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