Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8: which API costs less?
Averaged across three realistic workloads, Claude Opus 4.8 is about 50% cheaper than Claude Fable 5. Below: raw rates and side-by-side monthly costs, computed from prices verified 2026-07-05 (we track what you are billed today, promos included).
Rates per 1M tokens
| Model | Input | Output | Cached input |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Fable 5Anthropic | $10 | $50 | $1 |
| Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic | $5 | $25 | $0.500 |
Claude Fable 5: Najbardziej zaawansowany model.
Monthly cost, side by side
| Workload | Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Customer-support chatbot 2M input + 0.5M output tokens/month, 60% of input served from prompt cache | $34.20 | $17.10 | Claude Opus 4.8 −50% |
RAG / document Q&A 20M input + 1M output tokens/month, 70% cached (shared context) | $124 | $62.00 | Claude Opus 4.8 −50% |
Agentic coding assistant 50M input + 5M output tokens/month, 80% cached (long sessions) | $390 | $195 | Claude Opus 4.8 −50% |
Your traffic looks different? Run your own numbers in the calculator.
FAQ
Which is cheaper: Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?
Across three realistic workloads (chatbot, RAG, agent), Claude Opus 4.8 works out about 50% cheaper than Claude Fable 5 on average. Raw rates: Claude Fable 5 $10/$50 per 1M tokens vs Claude Opus 4.8 $5/$25. Verified 2026-07-05.
Does prompt caching change the comparison?
Yes — cached input costs $1 on Claude Fable 5 and $0.500 on Claude Opus 4.8. Our scenario numbers already include realistic cache hit rates.
Is cheaper always better?
No. Price is one axis — model capability, context window and latency differ. This page answers only the cost question; benchmark quality on your own tasks before switching.