Anthropic releases Opus 5.5 with lower prices and Fable-level performance
What's happening
Anthropic released Opus 5.5 today and described it as "the strongest-performing model we've tested to date." Independent analyses show Opus 5.5 topping three performance metrics in the ArtificialAnalysis.ai index and getting smarter when users increase effort level. One Reddit poster found Opus 5.5 on a high-effort setting matched Fable 5.1's max performance but at a much lower cost, $1.82 versus $7.63, and discussions highlight that Opus 5.5 is cheap per token but can be expensive per task depending on effort settings.
Why it's trending
Because Opus 5.5 combines top benchmark wins with notably lower per-token costs, sparking comparisons to Fable and cost-performance analysis right now.
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Opus 5.5 beats Fable on performance charts, but cheaper per token doesn't mean cheaper per task, here's why that matters for your budget.
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Original sources4
- Cheap per token, expensive per task: AI model pricing vs. performance [OC]
Anthropic's release of Opus 5.5 today sent me down a rabbit hole. I wanted to understand the best effort levels for using this new best-in-class model. That led me to the below, based on Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3.2 scores. If you look at the first chart, you'll see that in this index Opus 5.5 gets smarter as you dial up the effort level. (That's the result for this scoring model,
r/artificialSep 23 - Opus 5.5 dominates on all three performance metrics from ArtificialAnalysis.ai
The charts at ArtificialAnalysis.ai have a bug making them harder to see what's in the green quadrant (at least on my monitor). So, I had Opus 5.5 fix that. I think I could hear Opus cheering its win in all three areas. Interesting data point: Opus 5.5 on high effort performed as well as Fable 5.1 on max... but it did it for $1.82 instead of $7.63.
r/artificialSep 22 - Claude Opus 5.5 Intelligence, Performance and Price Analysis (Max)HackerNewsSep 22
- Anthropic releases Opus 5.5 with lower prices and Fable-level performance
Anthropic called it "the strongest-performing model we've tested to date."
TechCrunch AISep 22
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