Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 (1M) vs Anthropic Claude Fable 5 (1M)
Side-by-side comparison of pricing, context window, capabilities, and a real-cost sample workload.
Option A
Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 (1M)
by Anthropic
Context:1M
Input:$3.00 / 1M
Output:$15.00 / 1M
Released:2026-07
Option B
Anthropic Claude Fable 5 (1M)
by Anthropic
Context:1M
Input:$10.00 / 1M
Output:$50.00 / 1M
Released:2026-06
Detailed Comparison
| Dimension | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 (1M) | Anthropic Claude Fable 5 (1M) |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Anthropic |
| Context window TieTie | 1M | 1M |
| Input price ($/1M) Winner | $3.00 | $10.00 |
| Output price ($/1M) Winner | $15.00 | $50.00 |
| Sample workload cost Winner 1M input + 500K output tokens | $10.50 | $35.00 |
| Released Winner | 2026-07 | 2026-06 |
| Tokenizer | claude-4 | claude-4 |
The verdict
On the dimensions we measured, Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 (1M) wins more often - particularly on cost-effectiveness for a typical 1M+0.5M workload.
Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 (1M) - Key features
The workhorse of the Claude 5 family. Sonnet 5 lands close to Opus 4.8 on coding and agentic benchmarks while staying at the long-standing Sonnet price, with a 1M token context window available by default.
- 1M token context window
- Near-Opus coding quality
- Fast time to first token
- Strong tool use and structured output
- Batch and caching discounts
Anthropic Claude Fable 5 (1M) - Key features
The first public Mythos-class model - Anthropic's most powerful generally available model, sharing Mythos 5's underlying intelligence with added safeguards that fall back to Opus 4.8 on sensitive prompts.
- Mythos-class intelligence for everyone
- Adaptive thinking (no fixed budget)
- 1M token context window
- Top-tier coding & agentic work
- Built-in safety classifiers
How to choose
- Pick the cheaper model if your workload is mostly straightforward classification, extraction, or summarization.
- Pick the bigger context if you process long documents, large codebases, or multi-document research.
- Pick the more recent release if you need state-of-the-art reasoning quality and don't mind paying a bit more.
- Use both via a routing layer - send simple tasks to the cheaper one and complex tasks to the smarter one. This is the highest-ROI optimization in production AI.
Estimate the real cost of either model for your prompts using our Token Calculator.