Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8: Which Is Better for Coding? (2026)

head-to-head

Metric	Claude Fable 5	Claude Opus 4.8
SWE-bench Verified	95.0%	~86%
SWE-bench Pro	80.3%	69.2%
Terminal-Bench	—	~82.7% (TB2.1)
Input $ / 1M	$10	$5
Context	1M	1M
Open weights	No	No
Maker	Anthropic	Anthropic

when to pick each

Pick Claude Fable 5 if

Mythos-class flagship for long-horizon agentic runs: the model to reach for when a task spans hours and hundreds of tool calls and has to actually finish.

Pick Claude Opus 4.8 if

The hardest agentic refactors and long, autonomous multi-file tasks where every point of accuracy saves a human review cycle.

Full reviewsClaude Fable 5, decoded

Ranked on our AI Coding Leaderboard, updated 2026-07-03. Scores are confirmed against primary sources; prices are per 1M input tokens and can change.

Primary sources

AnthropicGENZ TECH — Claude Fable 5 returns — SWE-bench Verified 95.0% (vals.ai independent eval) is the highest confirmed score of any model. SWE-bench Pro 80.3% uses Anthropic's own scaffolding and is contested. Restored Jul 1, 2026 after a 20-day export-control suspension. Pricing $10/$50 per 1M.
AnthropicAnthropic — Claude Opus 4.8 — Anthropic-reported; independent evals (vals.ai) track within ~1 point.
BenchmarkSWE-bench — the real-GitHub-issue benchmark

$ quick-answers

Is Claude Fable 5 better than Claude Opus 4.8 for coding?

Claude Fable 5 scores higher on SWE-bench Verified (95.0% vs ~86%) and SWE-bench Pro, so it is the stronger coder on current benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.8 wins on price.

Which is cheaper, Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?

Claude Opus 4.8 is cheaper at $5 per 1M input tokens versus $10.

Should I use Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?

Claude Fable 5 for the hardest, highest-stakes coding; Claude Opus 4.8 when you want the best value or are running high volume. Both are frontier-class in 2026.