# Claude Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2: what's new, the benchmarks, and what it means for your Mac

> Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.2 and Claude Mythos 5.2 on November 9, 2026. They are the same model. Fable 5.2 is open to paid Claude plans and the API and has cybersecurity and biology safeguards. Mythos 5.2 is only for organizations Anthropic has vetted. Fable 5.2 costs $8 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens, down from $10 and $50 for Fable 5.1. It has a 1M-token context window, and Anthropic says it writes up to 30% faster. It has the top score in 10 of the 12 rows of Anthropic's own benchmark table. Anthropic still says most people should start with Claude Opus 5.5, which costs half as much. On a Mac you choose Fable 5.2 in the Claude app's model picker, or with /model fable in Claude Code.

By Justinas Rolando, maker of MacPip. Published November 11, 2026. Page: https://macpip.com/blog/claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2-mac

MacPip is an independent Mac app directory. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Anthropic. Every number below was read on November 11, 2026.

## What was released

On November 9, 2026, Anthropic put out two models in one [announcement](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-fable-and-mythos-5-2): Claude Fable 5.2 and Claude Mythos 5.2. Its own one-line description on the news page is "Our most capable models for daunting technical work".

Here is what changed, in the order I think matters:

- **One model, two names.** Anthropic says Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 are the same underlying model. Fable 5.2 has cybersecurity and biology safeguards and is the one you can use. Mythos 5.2 is for vetted organizations only.
- **It got cheaper.** Fable 5.2 costs $8 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens. Fable 5.1 was $10 and $50, so that is 20% less.
- **It got faster.** Anthropic says output comes up to 30% faster than the 5.1 models. A fast mode is up to 2.5 times faster again, at $16 and $80.
- **It stops less often.** Anthropic counted about 55% fewer blocks with Fable 5.2 in early testing: about 60% fewer in cybersecurity and 40% fewer in biology.
- **It uses fewer tokens on hard tasks at medium effort**, the default in the Claude apps and Claude Code. Anthropic gives no number for this.
- **Higher scores.** Fable 5.2 beats Fable 5.1 in every row of Anthropic's table, and has the top score in 10 of 12. The [charts are below](#benchmarks).

And one thing did not change: Anthropic still says that for most coding and knowledge tasks you should start with Claude Opus 5.5, and move up to Fable only when the work needs it. [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/09/anthropic-claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2.html) quotes Anthropic describing Fable 5.2 as a model for power users.

Nothing in the announcement is about the Mac in particular, and [MacRumors](https://www.macrumors.com/2026/11/09/anthropic-launches-claude-fable-5-2/) found nothing Mac-specific either. So the [Mac section](#mac) below is about how you reach the new model from a Mac, not about new Mac features.

## Fable 5.2 vs Mythos 5.2, side by side

| | Claude Fable 5.2 | Claude Mythos 5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| The model underneath | The same | The same |
| Who can use it | Paid Claude plans (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team, Enterprise) and the API | Only organizations vetted through Anthropic's Cyber or Life Sciences Verification Programs |
| Safeguards | Cybersecurity and biology safeguards are on. A flagged request is answered by an older model: Opus 4.8 for cybersecurity, Opus 5 for biology | Some of those safeguards are removed |
| API id | `claude-fable-5-2` | `claude-mythos-5-2` |
| Price per 1M tokens | $8 in, $40 out | The same |
| Context window, longest answer | 1M tokens, 128K tokens | The same |
| Knowledge cutoff | June 2026 | The same |
| Where the scores differ | 74.6% on Terminal-Bench-Science | 75.3% on Terminal-Bench-Science |
| Data retention | 30 days, required | The same |

Anthropic's Mythos page puts it this way: results are for Fable 5.2 unless noted, and where Mythos 5.2 is shown separately, the gap is from tasks where Fable's safeguards step in. For nearly everyone reading a Mac app directory, Mythos 5.2 is not a choice you get to make. The rest of this page is about Fable 5.2.

Sources: [the announcement](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-fable-and-mythos-5-2), [the Mythos page](https://www.anthropic.com/claude/mythos) and [the Mythos 5.2 docs](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/mythos-5-2/overview).

## Fable 5.2 vs the rest of the Claude family

Select a column heading to sort. Prices are for the API, in US dollars per million tokens. Context and longest answer are in tokens. Speed is Anthropic's own word for each model, not a measurement.

| Model | API id | Input per 1M tokens | Output per 1M tokens | Context window | Longest answer | Speed, in Anthropic's word | Released | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Fable 5.2 | `claude-fable-5-2` | $8 | $40 | 1M tokens | 128K tokens | Moderate | November 9, 2026 | Current |
| Claude Mythos 5.2 | `claude-mythos-5-2` | $8 | $40 | 1M tokens | 128K tokens | Moderate | November 9, 2026 | Verified organizations only |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | `claude-opus-5-5` | $4 | $20 | 1M tokens | 128K tokens | Moderate | September 22, 2026 | Current |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | `claude-sonnet-5-5` | $2 | $10 | 1M tokens | 128K tokens | Fast | September 28, 2026 | Current |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | `claude-haiku-5-5` | From $0.10 | From $0.50 | 1M tokens | 128K tokens | Fastest | October 7, 2026 | Current |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | `claude-fable-5-1` | $10 | $50 | 1M tokens | 128K tokens | not read | September 1, 2026 | Legacy |

Source: [models overview](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/overview), [pricing](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing). Read on November 11, 2026.

What I take from that table:

- **The whole current family has the same window.** Fable 5.2, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 all read 1M tokens and write up to 128K. So the choice between them is about quality, speed and price, not about how much fits.
- **Fable 5.2 costs 2 times what Opus 5.5 does**, 4 times Sonnet 5.5, and 80 times Haiku 5.5 on a short prompt.
- **Haiku 5.5 has two price lists.** A prompt over 100,000 tokens pays $0.50 in and $2.50 out, 5 times the short-prompt price. The other models charge the same rate at any length.
- **Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 are not in Anthropic's benchmark table for this release.** So there is no like-for-like score to chart for them here.
- **Fable 5.1 is still available**, marked legacy, at the old price. Anthropic's docs say it will not be retired before September 1, 2027.

## Tool: which Claude model should I use?

Four questions, one pick, and the reason for it. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere.

(An interactive tool on the page: https://macpip.com/blog/claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2-mac#picker.) In short: start with Opus 5.5 for most coding and knowledge work, use Sonnet 5.5 for well-scoped work where speed or cost matters, Haiku 5.5 for high-volume simple jobs, and Fable 5.2 for long, hard technical work. The Free plan has Sonnet and Haiku only.

## The benchmarks, as charts

These are Anthropic's numbers, from the table in its announcement, run by Anthropic. Scores for the Claude models are with safeguards on, and every score is at each model's highest available effort unless the label says otherwise. The GPT-6 Astra and Gemini 4 Carbon scores are what Anthropic reports for OpenAI's and Google's models. I have not checked them against those companies' own pages.

The first bar in each chart is Fable 5.2. Longer is better in all of them.

| Benchmark | Fable 5.2 | Fable 5.1 | Opus 5.5 | GPT-6 Astra | Gemini 4 Carbon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode 2.0 (agentic coding) | 49.1% (xhigh effort) | 32.4% (xhigh effort) | 45.5% | 42.8% | 41.1% (medium effort) |
| FrontierSWE v2 (agentic coding) | 69.9% | 56.3% | 62.3% | 65.5% | 61.2% |
| OSWorld 2.1 (offline set, partial) (computer use) | 89.3% | 83.5% | 87.2% | 79.5% | 81.5% |
| AA-Briefcase v1.1 (rubric) (knowledge work) | 66.1% | 61.5% | 61.2% | 52.0% | 61.8% |
| Remote Labor Index (knowledge work) | 41.3% (high effort) | 17.9% | 21.3% | 20.8% | not published |
| Humanity's Last Exam (with tools) (reasoning) | 74.2% | 65.6% | 67.7% | 57.2% | not published |
| Chartography (no tools) (reading charts) | 73.4% | 44.8% | 64.4% | 71.0% | 72.5% |
| WANDR (relaxed score) (agentic search) | 82.1% | 68.7% | 72.3% | not published | not published |
| Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (scientific research) | 74.6% | 52.6% | 58.7% | 68.1% | 64.8% |
| AutomationBench (business workflows) | 51.4% | 31.4% | 42.5% | 41.4% | 53.9% |
| RoboDojo Sim (run internally by Anthropic) (robotics) | 64.9% | 27.6% | 39.4% | 29.8% | not published |

### Where Fable 5.2 is not first

Two rows in Anthropic's own table go to someone else:

- **AutomationBench** (business workflows): Gemini 4 Carbon scores 53.9%, Fable 5.2 51.4%.
- **AA-Briefcase v1.1, Elo** (knowledge work): Opus 5.5 scores 1800, Fable 5.2 1785. On the same test's rubric score, Fable 5.2 is ahead.

### The biggest jumps

- **Remote Labor Index**: 41.3% at high effort, against 21.3% for Opus 5.5 and 17.9% for Fable 5.1. That is almost twice the Opus 5.5 score.
- **RoboDojo Sim (run internally by Anthropic)**: 64.9%, against 39.4% for Opus 5.5. In points, this is the widest lead over the next best score in the table.
- **Chartography (no tools)**: 73.4%, up from 44.8% for Fable 5.1. That is reading values off charts without tools.
- **FrontierCode 2.0**: 49.1% at xhigh effort, against 45.5% for Opus 5.5 and 32.4% for Fable 5.1.

### The whole table, sortable

Select a column heading to sort by that model's score. The last column is how far Fable 5.2 is ahead of the next best score in the row, in points. A minus means it is behind.

| Benchmark | Fable 5.2 | Fable 5.1 | Opus 5.5 | GPT-6 Astra | Gemini 4 Carbon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode 2.0 (agentic coding) | 49.1% (xhigh effort) | 32.4% (xhigh effort) | 45.5% | 42.8% | 41.1% (medium effort) |
| FrontierSWE v2 (agentic coding) | 69.9% | 56.3% | 62.3% | 65.5% | 61.2% |
| OSWorld 2.1 (offline set, partial) (computer use) | 89.3% | 83.5% | 87.2% | 79.5% | 81.5% |
| AA-Briefcase v1.1 (rubric) (knowledge work) | 66.1% | 61.5% | 61.2% | 52.0% | 61.8% |
| AA-Briefcase v1.1 (Elo) (knowledge work) | 1785 | 1669 | 1800 | 1569 | 1611 |
| Remote Labor Index (knowledge work) | 41.3% (high effort) | 17.9% | 21.3% | 20.8% | not published |
| Humanity's Last Exam (with tools) (reasoning) | 74.2% | 65.6% | 67.7% | 57.2% | not published |
| Chartography (no tools) (reading charts) | 73.4% | 44.8% | 64.4% | 71.0% | 72.5% |
| WANDR (relaxed score) (agentic search) | 82.1% | 68.7% | 72.3% | not published | not published |
| Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (scientific research) | 74.6% | 52.6% | 58.7% | 68.1% | 64.8% |
| AutomationBench (business workflows) | 51.4% | 31.4% | 42.5% | 41.4% | 53.9% |
| RoboDojo Sim (run internally by Anthropic) (robotics) | 64.9% | 27.6% | 39.4% | 29.8% | not published |

Source: [the announcement](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-fable-and-mythos-5-2).

### The rows where only Mythos 5.2 is shown

For cybersecurity and protein design, Anthropic shows Mythos 5.2 instead of Fable 5.2, because Fable's safeguards step in on those tasks.

| Benchmark | Mythos 5.2 | Mythos 5.1 | Opus 5.5, safeguards off |
|---|---|---|---|
| CyScenarioBench (cybersecurity) | 76.3% | 61.7% | 67.6% |
| CVE Rediscovery (internal, 1,829 CVEs) (cybersecurity) | 89.6% | 78.3% | 81.3% |
| De novo binder design (24 hr) (protein design) | 85.1 | 79.1 | 82.6 |

Anthropic also lists GPT-6 Cyber at 61%, and notes that each lab's scores use different tasks.

### What an independent tracker measured

[Artificial Analysis](https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/claude-fable-5-2) tests models itself. For Fable 5.2 at maximum effort, read on November 11, 2026, it shows:

- **Intelligence Index: 65**, ranked 1 of 74. The median of comparable models is 40.
- **Output speed: 101 tokens per second.**
- **Time to the first answer token: 233.95 seconds**, against a median of 12.76. At maximum effort the model thinks for a long time before it answers.
- **45.2 minutes and $26.54 per task** on its index, against a median of 12.6 minutes.

That is the slowest and most expensive way to run it. Medium effort, the default in the apps, is built to use fewer tokens, and Artificial Analysis had not published numbers for it when I read the page.

### How to read all of this

- **Most of these numbers come from the company selling the model.** That is normal for a launch week, and it is why the independent numbers above are worth more per line.
- **A benchmark is not your task.** A score of 49.1% on FrontierCode 2.0 does not tell you whether it will fix your bug.
- **Effort level changes everything.** The same model at low and at max effort is two different products in speed and cost.
- **I did not read the system card.** It is a PDF of more than 10 MB that I could not open with my tools, so nothing on this page comes from it.

## Prices, and what a task costs

The API prices, per million tokens, read on November 11, 2026 from Anthropic's [pricing page](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing):

| Model | Input | Output | Cache read | Batch API (in / out) | Fast mode (in / out) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 | $8 | $40 | $0.20 | $4 / $20 | $16 / $80 |
| Opus 5.5 | $4 | $20 | $0.20 | $2 / $10 | $8 / $40 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $2 | $10 | $0.10 | $1 / $5 | none |
| Haiku 5.5, prompt up to 100,000 tokens | $0.10 | $0.50 | $0.01 | $0.05 / $0.25 | none |
| Haiku 5.5, prompt over 100,000 tokens | $0.50 | $2.50 | $0.05 | $0.25 / $1.25 | none |
| Fable 5.1 (legacy) | $10 | $50 | $0.25 | $5 / $25 | none |

### What a task costs: four worked examples

These are sums, not measurements: the published price times a stated number of tokens. A real task also pays for thinking, which Anthropic bills as output tokens, so treat each as a floor.

| Example | Tokens | Fable 5.2 | Opus 5.5 | Sonnet 5.5 | Haiku 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A quick question | 1,000 in, 500 out | $0.028 | $0.014 | $0.007 | $0.00035 |
| A long document in, a summary out | 20,000 in, 2,000 out | $0.24 | $0.12 | $0.06 | $0.003 |
| A big pile of code or documents in, a review out | 200,000 in, 10,000 out | $2.00 | $1.00 | $0.50 | $0.125 |
| Nearly the whole window in, a long report out | 900,000 in, 30,000 out | $8.40 | $4.20 | $2.10 | $0.525 |

A few things that move the bill:

- **Thinking counts as output.** Anthropic's docs say the billed output does not match the visible answer. Higher effort means more thinking.
- **No surcharge for long prompts**, except on Haiku 5.5. Anthropic's example: a 900,000-token request pays the same per-token rate as a 9,000-token one.
- **Batch is half price** if you can wait for the answer. It can't be combined with fast mode.
- **Web search is $10 per 1,000 searches**, on top of tokens.
- **Price per token is not price per task.** Anthropic reports that Fable 5.2 at high effort nearly matched Opus 5.5's top score on FrontierCode (45.3% against 45.5%) for roughly half the cost per task. It also reports Fable 5.2 matching Opus 5.5's top score on WANDR at medium effort for about 40% of the cost, and on Humanity's Last Exam at low effort for less than a tenth of the cost. Those are Anthropic's own measurements. If they hold for your work, the dearer model at a lower effort can be the cheaper one.

### On a subscription

You don't pay per token on a Claude plan. What changes is whether Fable 5.2 is included, from Anthropic's [plans page](https://claude.com/pricing) and its [launch offer](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/17506494):

| Plan | Price | Claude Fable 5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Not included. The Free plan has Sonnet and Haiku. |
| Pro | $20 a month, or $17 a month paid yearly | Paid with usage credits. The launch offer includes it for up to 50% of your weekly limit until November 16, 2026. |
| Max | $100 a month | Included, for up to 50% of your weekly limit. |
| Ultra | $200 a month | Included, for up to 50% of your weekly limit. |
| Team, standard seat | $25 a seat a month, or $20 paid yearly | The pricing page lists Fable for premium seats only. The launch offer includes it on standard seats for up to 50% of the weekly limit until November 16, 2026. |
| Team, premium seat | $125 a seat a month, or $100 paid yearly | Included, for up to 50% of the weekly limit. |
| Enterprise | Seat price plus usage at API rates | Included. Usage is billed at API rates. |

The announcement says Pro includes Fable, and the pricing page says Pro pays with usage credits. Both are right: the Pro inclusion is a launch offer that ends on November 16, 2026.

## Tool: Claude cost calculator

Type a size, or paste the text you would send, and see the price of one run and of a month on each model.

(An interactive calculator on the page: https://macpip.com/blog/claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2-mac#cost. It multiplies the prices above by your token counts.)

## Tool: how much fits in the context window

Every current Claude model, Fable 5.2 included, reads up to 1,000,000 tokens at once. Anthropic's rule of thumb is that 1M tokens is roughly 555,000 words or 2,500,000 characters. Models before Claude Opus 4.7 fit about 750,000 words in the same number of tokens, because the newer tokenizer makes about 30% more tokens from the same text.

(An interactive visualizer on the page: https://macpip.com/blog/claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2-mac#context.) At 500 words a page, the 1M-token window holds about 1,110 pages. At 40 characters a line, it holds about 62,500 lines of code. Both depend on those two assumptions.

## What it means on a Mac

The model runs on Anthropic's servers, not on your Mac. An older MacBook Air gets the same Fable 5.2 as a new Mac Studio. Your Mac only needs to run the apps.

### The Claude Mac app

- **What it needs:** macOS 13 (Ventura) or later, per Anthropic's [install guide](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10065433-install-claude-desktop). One download covers Apple silicon and Intel.
- **How to get Fable 5.2:** open the model picker and choose it. It is never the default, on any plan.
- **Which plans:** the app itself installs on every plan, Free included. Fable 5.2 needs a paid plan, as the table above shows.
- **What else is in the app:** a Quick Entry shortcut, desktop extensions that reach local files and apps, Claude Code, and Cowork on paid plans, per the [download page](https://claude.com/download).

### Claude Code

- **What it needs:** macOS 13.0 or later and 4 GB of memory or more, on Intel or Apple silicon, and a paid plan or a Console account. The Free plan does not include it. This is from the [setup page](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup).
- **Install:** `curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash`, or `brew install --cask claude-code`.
- **Switch to Fable 5.2:** type `/model fable`, or start with `claude --model fable`. The [docs](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/model-config) say it needs Claude Code 2.1.321 or later.
- **The default effort is medium**, not the API's high. That is the setting where Anthropic says Fable 5.2 uses fewer tokens than 5.1.
- **Fast mode:** type `/fast`. On a subscription it is billed to usage credits, not counted against your plan's limits.

### Agents that drive a Mac

Claude can click, type and look at the screen of your Mac through a feature called computer use, in Cowork and Claude Code inside the desktop app. It is not new with this release. What the pages say:

- **Plans:** Pro, Max and Ultra. Not Team or Enterprise.
- **Permissions:** macOS asks for Accessibility, so Claude can click and type, and Screen Recording, so it can see the screen.
- **Two of Anthropic's own pages disagree on the details.** The [Claude Code docs](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop) call it a research preview and say it needs macOS 14 or later. The [Cowork help article](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/14128542) calls it a beta and says working in the background needs macOS 15 or later. Either way, it is not finished.
- **What Fable 5.2 adds is a higher score.** On OSWorld 2.1 (offline set, partial), Anthropic reports 89.3% for Fable 5.2, 87.2% for Opus 5.5 and 83.5% for Fable 5.1. Anthropic's table does not say which operating systems that test covers, so I would not read it as a macOS score.

If you let any agent use your Mac, give it the narrowest access that gets the job done, and watch the first runs.

## Tool: what can I use on my Mac?

Pick your plan and your macOS version. It tells you which Claude apps run, and whether Fable 5.2 is included.

(An interactive checker on the page: https://macpip.com/blog/claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2-mac#mac-check.)

## Mac apps on MacPip that work with Claude

A new model also means more people running Claude Code all day, and a small crowd of Mac apps has grown up around that: meters for your usage limits, dashboards in the notch, session browsers, tools that keep the Mac awake while an agent works.

This list is read live from MacPip's database each time the page loads. **None of these listings says the app has been tested with Fable 5.2**, and I have not tested them with it. Check an app's own page before you rely on it with a new model. A blue tick means a person at MacPip tried the app on a date. It is not a safety guarantee. The order is newest first, by the day a listing was checked or added, and never by payment.

The live list is on the page. See also https://macpip.com/category/coding-agents and https://macpip.com/category/ai.

## For Mac app makers

If you build Mac apps, here is where I would and would not spend Fable 5.2.

- **Keep Opus 5.5 for the daily work.** That is Anthropic's own advice, and it costs half as much.
- **Bring in Fable 5.2 for the long jobs.** A migration across a whole codebase, a bug that has survived three attempts, a review of everything before a release. Those are my examples, not Anthropic's, but they are the kind of long, hard task its numbers are about.
- **Lower the effort before you lower the model.** Anthropic's cost claims above are all about Fable 5.2 at low, medium or high effort, not max.

If your Mac app calls the Claude API itself, read the [what's new page](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/fable-5-2/whats-new-fable-5-2) before you change the model id. A few things return an error on Fable 5.2 that worked on older models:

- **Thinking is always on.** Sending `thinking: disabled` or a thinking budget returns a 400 error.
- **No prefilled answers, no `temperature`.** Prefilling the assistant message returns a 400, and the sampling settings should be left out.
- **No forced tool choice.** `tool_choice` set to `any` or to a named tool returns a 400.
- **A refusal is a normal answer.** A blocked request comes back with HTTP 200 and `stop_reason: "refusal"`, so handle it and decide on a fallback.
- **30-day data retention is required.** An organization set to zero retention gets an error unless Anthropic has cleared it.

And the MacPip side, all free:

- [Prompts for Mac makers](/prompts): copy-ready prompts for writing your listing, checking what your app needs, release notes and launch day. They work in any Claude model.
- [MacPip for AI agents](/agents): the public MCP server and the Markdown copies of every page, so your agent can read the directory.
- [Submit with your AI agent](/maker#mcp): one private link, and you can say "list my app on MacPip" to Claude. A person still checks every app.
- [Free tools](/tools): the [launch checklist](/tools/launch-checklist), the [notarization explainer](/tools/notarization-explainer) and the rest.
- [How to submit a Mac app](/guides/how-to-submit-a-mac-app), if you have not launched yet. [Listing on MacPip is free](/submit).

## Should you switch?

My honest read, from the published numbers only:

**Switch now if you are on Fable 5.1.** It is 20% cheaper, faster, blocks less, and scores higher in every row. The only work is on the API, where a few requests that used to pass now return an error.

**Try it if your work is long and hard.** Multi-hour agent runs, large refactors, research that needs many steps. That is the kind of work the Remote Labor Index tries to measure, and there Anthropic reports 41.3% for Fable 5.2 against 21.3% for Opus 5.5.

**Stay on Opus 5.5 if your work is everyday coding and writing.** Anthropic says so itself. Opus 5.5 is half the price, and on a subscription Fable 5.2 can use only up to half of your weekly limit.

**Stay on Sonnet 5.5 or Haiku 5.5 if speed or cost is the point.** Nothing in this release changes them.

**Wait if any of these apply:**

- You are on the Free plan. Fable 5.2 is not there.
- Your company needs zero data retention. Fable 5.2 requires 30 days unless Anthropic has cleared you.
- Your code depends on prefilled answers, forced tool choice or `temperature`.
- You want independent numbers first. Right now there is one tracker's result at one effort level, and the rest is Anthropic's.

What I can't tell you: how it does on your code. The cheapest honest test is to take one task Opus 5.5 struggled with last week and run it again on Fable 5.2 at medium effort.

## Questions

### What is Claude Fable 5.2?

Claude Fable 5.2 is the model Anthropic released on November 9, 2026 for long, hard technical work. It is the generally available version of the model behind Claude Mythos 5.2, with cybersecurity and biology safeguards added. Its API id is claude-fable-5-2.

### What is the difference between Claude Fable 5.2 and Claude Mythos 5.2?

Anthropic says they are the same underlying model. Fable 5.2 has cybersecurity and biology safeguards and is open to paid Claude plans and the API. Mythos 5.2 has some of those safeguards removed and is only available to organizations vetted through Anthropic's Cyber and Life Sciences Verification Programs. The price and the specifications are the same.

### How much does Claude Fable 5.2 cost?

On the API, $8 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens, read on November 11, 2026. That is 20% less than Fable 5.1, which was $10 and $50. Fast mode costs $16 and $80. The Batch API is 50% off.

### Is Claude Fable 5.2 free?

No. Anthropic's pricing page lists Sonnet and Haiku on the Free plan, and no Fable. Pro pays for Fable with usage credits, apart from a launch offer that includes it until November 16, 2026. Max and Ultra include it for up to 50% of the weekly limit.

### Is Claude Fable 5.2 better than Claude Opus 5.5?

In Anthropic's own benchmark table Fable 5.2 scores higher than Opus 5.5 in 11 of 12 rows. Opus 5.5 is ahead on the AA-Briefcase Elo score, costs half as much, and is still the model Anthropic recommends starting with for most coding and knowledge work.

### What is the context window of Claude Fable 5.2?

1,000,000 tokens, with up to 128,000 tokens in one answer. Anthropic says 1M tokens is roughly 555,000 words or 2,500,000 characters. Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 have the same window.

### How do I use Claude Fable 5.2 on a Mac?

Install the Claude desktop app, which needs macOS 13 or later, sign in with a paid plan, and choose Fable 5.2 in the model picker. It is never the default model. In Claude Code, type /model fable.

### How do I switch to Fable 5.2 in Claude Code?

Run /model fable in a session, or start with claude --model fable. Anthropic's docs say Fable 5.2 needs Claude Code 2.1.321 or later. No plan uses a Fable model by default.

### Can Claude Fable 5.2 control my Mac?

Claude can use a Mac through the computer use feature in the Claude desktop app, on Pro, Max and Ultra plans. Anthropic's docs say it needs macOS 14 or later and the Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions, and call it a preview. That feature is not new with Fable 5.2. What is new is a higher computer use score: 89.3% on OSWorld 2.1, against 87.2% for Opus 5.5.

### Is Claude Fable 5.2 faster than Fable 5.1?

Anthropic says it generates output up to 30% faster than Fable 5.1, and that fast mode is up to 2.5 times faster again at a higher price. Anthropic has not published times in seconds. Artificial Analysis measured 101 tokens per second at the maximum effort setting.

### Does Fable 5.2 run on my Mac or in the cloud?

In the cloud. The model runs on Anthropic's servers, so your Mac's chip and memory do not change how capable it is. The apps have small requirements: macOS 13 or later for the desktop app, and macOS 13 or later with 4 GB of memory for Claude Code.

### Is MacPip affiliated with Anthropic?

No. MacPip is an independent Mac app directory. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Anthropic. This article reports what Anthropic and others have published, with a link for each number.

## How this page was made

- **Primary sources first.** Anthropic's announcement, its model and pricing docs, its help center and the Claude Code docs. The benchmark, price and model tables were read from the page source, not from a summary.
- **Read on November 11, 2026.** Prices and plan details change. The date is on every tool.
- **Nothing is estimated.** Where a number was not published, the page says so. The worked examples are sums on published prices, and say so.
- **Where sources disagree, both are shown.** Two of them are on this page: the computer use details, and Anthropic's announcement saying "Microsoft Azure" where its docs say Microsoft Foundry.
- **What I could not check:** the system card, the competitor scores against their makers' own pages, any score for Sonnet 5.5 or Haiku 5.5 on these tests, and whether any listed Mac app has been tested with Fable 5.2.
- **One data file.** Every number on this page and in the four tools comes from a single file in MacPip's code, so a price change is one edit.

MacPip is an independent Mac app directory, and is not affiliated with Anthropic. Claude, Claude Fable, Claude Mythos, Claude Opus, Claude Sonnet, Claude Haiku and Claude Code are Anthropic's product names. If something here is wrong, [tell me](/contact) and I will fix it and note the change.

## Sources
- [Anthropic: Introducing Claude Fable 5.2 and Claude Mythos 5.2 (November 9, 2026)](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-fable-and-mythos-5-2)
- [Anthropic: Claude Fable product page](https://www.anthropic.com/claude/fable)
- [Anthropic: Claude Mythos product page](https://www.anthropic.com/claude/mythos)
- [Anthropic: Claude Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 system card (PDF, not read for this article)](https://www.anthropic.com/document/claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2-system-card)
- [@claudeai on X: the announcement post](https://x.com/claudeai/status/2119867114450268322)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Models overview](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/overview)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Claude Fable 5.2](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/fable-5-2/overview)
- [Claude Platform Docs: What's new in Claude Fable 5.2](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/fable-5-2/whats-new-fable-5-2)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Claude Mythos 5.2](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/mythos-5-2/overview)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Claude Fable 5.1](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/models/fable-5-1/overview)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Pricing](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Fast mode](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/fast-mode)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Effort](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/effort)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Adaptive thinking and its cost](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/adaptive-thinking)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Release notes](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/overview)
- [Claude Platform Docs: Computer use tool](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/computer-use-tool)
- [Claude: Plans and pricing](https://claude.com/pricing)
- [Claude: Download the apps](https://claude.com/download)
- [Claude Help Center: Fable launch offers](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/17506494)
- [Claude Help Center: Install Claude Desktop](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10065433-install-claude-desktop)
- [Claude Help Center: Deploy Claude Desktop for macOS](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12611117-deploy-claude-desktop-for-macos)
- [Claude Help Center: Let Claude use your computer in Cowork](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/14128542)
- [Claude Code Docs: Setup](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup)
- [Claude Code Docs: Model configuration](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/model-config)
- [Claude Code Docs: Fast mode](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/fast-mode)
- [Claude Code Docs: Desktop app](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop)
- [Artificial Analysis: Claude Fable 5.2](https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/claude-fable-5-2)
- [MacRumors: Anthropic Launches Claude Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 (November 9, 2026)](https://www.macrumors.com/2026/11/09/anthropic-launches-claude-fable-5-2/)
- [The Next Web: Anthropic launches Claude Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 (November 9, 2026)](https://thenextweb.com/news/claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2-anthropic-launch-price)
- [CNBC: Anthropic releases Claude Fable 5.2 and Claude Mythos 5.2 (November 9, 2026)](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/09/anthropic-claude-fable-5-2-mythos-5-2.html)