Cheaper alternatives to Claude Fable 5
Claude Fable 5 scores 1454 on the overall Arena and costs about $4,000.00/month at 100,000 calls (1,500 in / 500 out). Here are models that match or beat it on quality for less.
| GLM-5.2 | 1463 | $430.00 | $3,570.00/mo | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | 1463 | $687.50 | $3,312.50/mo | |
| GPT-5.4 | 1461 | $1,125.00 | $2,875.00/mo | OpenAI |
| Kimi K3 | 1473 | $1,200.00 | $2,800.00/mo | Moonshot AI |
| GPT-5.4 | 1461 | $1,237.50 | $2,762.50/mo | AWS Bedrock |
| GPT-5.5 | 1465 | $2,250.00 | $1,750.00/mo | OpenAI |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | 1455 | $2,250.00 | $1,750.00/mo | OpenAI |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | 1455 | $2,250.00 | $1,750.00/mo | AWS Bedrock |
| GPT-5.5 | 1465 | $2,475.00 | $1,525.00/mo | AWS Bedrock |
Intelligence scores are community Arena ratings from LMArena / arena.ai, used under CC BY 4.0. Snapshot last refreshed 28 July 2026. Scores are a relative signal, not an absolute measure of capability. A Measured score was voted on directly; an Estimated score is inherited from an identical base model (a regional/creator-prefixed hosting duplicate). See our methodology.
FAQ
Is there a cheaper model as good as Claude Fable 5?
Yes. GLM-5.2 matches or beats Claude Fable 5 on the overall Arena leaderboard and costs about $430.00/month versus $4,000.00/month at a typical volume of 100,000 calls — saving roughly $3,570.00/month.
How is 'as good' defined?
We only list models with an overall Arena score at or above Claude Fable 5's (1454). Arena scores are community preference ratings, not a single benchmark — confirm the alternative on your own task before switching.
Cite / link to this page
You’re welcome to reference this page and its figures with attribution and a link back.
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