Compare / Qwen3.5-27B vs Claude Fable 5.1

Qwen3.5-27B vs Claude Fable 5.1

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 15 results on 4 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-27B Released 24 Feb 2026 · $0.27 in · $2.16 out
AnthropicClaude Fable 5.1 Released 1 Sep 2026 · $10.00 in · $50.00 out
Qwen3.5-27B wins 0Claude Fable 5.1 wins 15

Of the 15 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs Anthropic, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-27B or Claude Fable 5.1? The short answer

Pick Claude Fable 5.1 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 53.4 against 22.9). Pick Qwen3.5-27B if cost matters more: it costs 27 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-27B is cheaper: $0.74 against $20.00 per million tokens, 27 times less.
  • Claude Fable 5.1 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 53.4 against 22.9.
  • Claude Fable 5.1 is newer: released 1 Sep 2026, against 24 Feb 2026 for Qwen3.5-27B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Claude Fable 5.1 does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

22.9
Intelligence Index
53.4
$0.74
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$20.00
262,144
Context window, tokens
1,000,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-27BClaude Fable 5.1
Price per million tokens$0.27 in · $2.16 out$10.00 in · $50.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.74$20.00
Cheapest host, blended$0.54 (Alibaba)$20.00 (Amazon Bedrock)
Cached input, per million–$0.25 cached input
Intelligence Index22.953.4
Spring Prompt overall–66
Output speed, tokens a second–67
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Released24 Feb 20261 Sep 2026 (newer)
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live not measured 15 of 20
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is not measured 6 of 19
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending not measured 6 of 19
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 145 of 164 14 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 4 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 82 of 198 4 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 98 of 188 18 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 121 of 152 4 of 152
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 24 of 24

From our research

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3.5-27BClaude Fable 5.1
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 129 · 6 of 387 measured 1,409 1,501max reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 112 · 3 of 163 measured 1,420 1,500max reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 128 · 17 of 380 measured 1,408 1,484max reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 86 · 3 of 243 measured 22.9 53.4max reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 74 · 8 of 231 measured 85.8% 93.7%max reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 95 · 2 of 242 measured 23.9% 59.1%max reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 99 · 31 of 230 measured 42.4think-prefill reasoning 63.9medium reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 49 · 8 of 230 measured 11.0%think-prefill reasoning 3.0%high reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 147 · 2 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.43high reasoning
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 50 · 22 of 58 measured $201.98 $5,422
Show all 15 results (5 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-27BClaude Fable 5.1
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 145 · 9 of 385 measured 1,358 1,482max reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 112 · 15 of 338 measured 1,441 1,521max reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 122 · 6 of 387 measured 1,401 1,497max reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 7 of 386 measured 1,380 1,491max reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 1 result
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 63 · 3 of 233 measured 77.7% 85.3%max reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-27B better than Claude Fable 5.1?

Pick Claude Fable 5.1 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 53.4 against 22.9). Pick Qwen3.5-27B if cost matters more: it costs 27 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-27B or Claude Fable 5.1?

Qwen3.5-27B is cheaper: $0.74 against $20.00 per million tokens, 27 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-27B or Claude Fable 5.1?

Claude Fable 5.1 ranks 14 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 145 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-27B or Claude Fable 5.1?

Claude Fable 5.1 ranks 4 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 82 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-27B or Claude Fable 5.1?

Claude Fable 5.1 ranks 18 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 98 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-27B or Claude Fable 5.1?

Claude Fable 5.1 ranks 4 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 121 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-27B or Claude Fable 5.1?

Claude Fable 5.1: 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Run Qwen3.5-27B and Claude Fable 5.1 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.

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