Claude Fable 5.1 vs Grok 4.6: pricing and benchmarks
Grok 4.6 is 80% cheaper on input tokens ($2.00 vs $10.00 per 1M). Grok 4.6 is 88% cheaper on output tokens ($6.00 vs $50.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Grok 4.6 costs $980.00 a month versus $5,500 for Claude Fable 5.1, 82% less. Claude Fable 5.1 scores 164.5 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 156.3 for Grok 4.6.
Prices verified September 14, 2026.
Which should you choose?
Claude Fable 5.1 scores 164.5 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 156.3 for Grok 4.6.
Claude Fable 5.1 scores 90.2% on FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3) vs 66.0% for Grok 4.6.
Grok 4.6 costs $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 input-to-output mix) vs $20.00 for Claude Fable 5.1, 85% less.
A trade-off: Claude Fable 5.1 is 8.1 ECI points more capable but costs 6.7x as much as Grok 4.6.
Pricing and specs
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Grok 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | xAI |
| API model ID | claude-fable-5-1 | grok-4.6 |
| Input / 1M tokens | $10.00 | $2.00 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.25 | $0.50 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $50.00 | $6.00 |
| Long-context rates | — | $4.00 in / $12.00 out above 200K prompt tokens |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 500K tokens |
| Max output | 128K tokens | — |
| Batch discount | 50% off | — |
Benchmarks
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Grok 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 164.5 | 156.3 |
| GPQA Diamond· Science reasoning | — | 92.0% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3)· Advanced math | 90.2% | 66.0% |
| SimpleQA Verified· Factual accuracy | 70.8% | 49.3% |
| ARC-AGI-2· Abstract reasoning | 90.0% | 67.1% |
| DeepSWE· Coding | — | 67.5% |
| APEX-Agents· Agentic work | 47.4% | 41.2% |
Source: Epoch AI, best recorded result per model (CC BY 4.0). A dash means no published score. See all benchmarks
Monthly cost for real workloads
| Workload | Claude Fable 5.1 | Grok 4.6 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Support chatbot 100,000 replies a month, ~1,500 input tokens (system prompt + history) and ~400 output tokens each. | $3,500 | $540.00 | Grok 4.6 85% cheaper |
Document Q&A (RAG) 50,000 questions a month with ~8,000 tokens of retrieved context and ~600 output tokens each. | $5,500 | $980.00 | Grok 4.6 82% cheaper |
Coding agent 10,000 agent steps a month, ~40,000 input tokens each (70% read from the prompt cache) and ~2,000 output tokens. | $2,270 | $500.00 | Grok 4.6 78% cheaper |
Estimates use standard list prices and ignore cache-write surcharges. Different tokenizers can count the same text differently, so test with your own prompts.
Claude Fable 5.1 vs Grok 4.6 cost calculator
- $980.00/mo$0.02 / request
- Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$5,500/mo$0.11 / request
Standard-tier list prices. Long-context rates apply automatically where the provider publishes a threshold. Excludes cache-write surcharges, taxes, batch and volume discounts.
Claude Fable 5.1 pricing notes
Anthropic’s model for demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work.
- Cache hits cost 2.5% of the base input price, versus 10% on other Claude models.
- Cache writes cost $12.50 (5-minute cache) or $20 (1-hour cache) per 1M tokens.
- Uses Anthropic’s newer tokenizer, which produces roughly 30% more tokens for the same text.
- US-only inference (inference_geo: "us") costs 1.1x.
Grok 4.6 pricing notes
xAI’s flagship model for code and everything else, with agentic tool calling and configurable reasoning.
- Requests with 200K or more prompt tokens are billed at $4 input / $1 cached / $12 output for all tokens.
- Web Search and X Search tools cost $5 per 1,000 calls.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Claude Fable 5.1 cheaper than Grok 4.6?
- Grok 4.6 is 80% cheaper on input tokens ($2.00 vs $10.00 per 1M). Grok 4.6 is 88% cheaper on output tokens ($6.00 vs $50.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Grok 4.6 costs $980.00 a month versus $5,500 for Claude Fable 5.1, 82% less.
- Which is more capable, Claude Fable 5.1 or Grok 4.6?
- Claude Fable 5.1 scores 164.5 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 156.3 for Grok 4.6.
- How much does Claude Fable 5.1 cost per 1M tokens?
- Claude Fable 5.1 costs $10.00 per 1M input tokens and $50.00 per 1M output tokens, and $0.25 per 1M cached input tokens on Anthropic’s standard tier.
- How much does Grok 4.6 cost per 1M tokens?
- Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens, and $0.50 per 1M cached input tokens on xAI’s standard tier.
- Which has the larger context window, Claude Fable 5.1 or Grok 4.6?
- Claude Fable 5.1 has the larger context window: 1M tokens versus 500K for Grok 4.6.