Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol vs Qwen3.8 Max
Qwen3.8 Max comes out ahead, 69 to 66 and 65 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
AnthropicClaude Fable 5
65/100- ECI162.2
- Price$10.00 / $50.00
- Context1M
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Sol
66/100- ECI161.8
- Price$4.00 / $20.00
- Context1.05M
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Qwen3.8 Max is our pick
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against GPT-5.6 Sol (66) and Claude Fable 5 (65). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Fable 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Fable 5 162.2 · GPT-5.6 Sol 161.8 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · GPT-5.6 Sol $8.00 · Claude Fable 5 $20.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-5.6 SolGPT-5.6 Sol 1,050,000 · Claude Fable 5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxClaude Fable 5: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-5.6 Sol: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Claude Fable 5 | GPT-5.6 Sol | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 94 | 93 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 0 | 7 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 66/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Fable 5Anthropic | GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 162.2 (best) | 161.8 | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #7 of 148 (best) | #8 of 148 | #20 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 85.9% | 93.5% (best) | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 87.0% | 89.1% (best) | 74.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% (best) | 100% (best) | 99.4% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 70.7% (best) | 69.7% | 45.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $10.00 | $4.00 | $2.00 (best) |
| Output | $50.00 | $20.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $1.00 | $0.40 | $0.25 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $20.00 | $8.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 272K: $8.00 / $30.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official OpenAI API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-fable-5 | gpt-5.6-sol | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 38 | 40 (best) | 25 |
| Released | Jun 9, 2026 | Jul 9, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 31, 2026 | Feb 16, 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Fable 5$200.00
- GPT-5.6 Sol$80.00
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol or Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against GPT-5.6 Sol (66) and Claude Fable 5 (65). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol or Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). GPT-5.6 Sol costs $4.00 input / $20.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Claude Fable 5 costs $10.00 input / $50.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $8.00 for GPT-5.6 Sol (2.7× as much) and $20.00 for Claude Fable 5 (6.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Fable 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Fable 5 162.2 (#7 of 148), GPT-5.6 Sol 161.8 (#8 of 148) and Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (159.6–166.1 vs 159.3–165.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.6 Sol 93.5%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Claude Fable 5 85.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.6 Sol 89.1%, Claude Fable 5 87.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Fable 5 100%, GPT-5.6 Sol 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%; SimpleQA Verified — Claude Fable 5 70.7%, GPT-5.6 Sol 69.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Fable 5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-5.6 Sol has the largest context window at 1,050,000 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Fable 5 and 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max. Maximum output per response: Claude Fable 5 up to 128,000, GPT-5.6 Sol up to 128,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Fable 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-5.6 Sol accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. GPT-5.6 Sol came out Jul 9, 2026; Claude Fable 5 came out Jun 9, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Fable 5 Jan 31, 2026, GPT-5.6 Sol Feb 16, 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
