Claude Fable 5.1 Paid vs 
Seed 1.6 Paid
Claude Fable 5.1 vs Seed 1.6 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.
Claude Fable 5.1 — full profile › · Seed 1.6 — full profile ›
Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai
Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.
$50 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
$2 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
Claude Fable 5.1 vs Seed 1.6 specs
| Spec | Claude Fable 5.1 | Seed 1.6 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | ByteDance Seed | – |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 262K tokens | |
| Input price | $10/M | $0.25/M | |
| Output price | $50/M | $2/M | |
| Vision / multimodal | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Self-hostable | No (API only) | No (API only) | – |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | – |
Price gap & when to choose each
Seed 1.6 is ~25× cheaper than Claude Fable 5.1 on output tokens ($2 vs $50 per M tokens).
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You need the longer 1M context window
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
- You want frontier performance through a managed API
- You want the lower output price
- You value reliability & ecosystem
- You don't want to manage infrastructure
Feature comparison
| Capability | Claude Fable 5.1 | Seed 1.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Open weights (downloadable) | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| Runs fully offline | ✗ | ✗ |
| Vision / multimodal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tool / function calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1M+ context window | ✓ | ✗ |
Benchmarks: Claude Fable 5.1 vs Seed 1.6
Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).
Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.
How Claude Fable 5.1 and Seed 1.6 score
| Criterion | Claude Fable 5.1 | Seed 1.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-efficiency | 2.0 | 4.5 |
| Context window | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Self-hosting | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Multimodality | 5.0 | 5.0 |
Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.
What each model is
Claude Fable 5.1 Paid
Claude Fable 5.1 improves on Claude Fable 5 across the board, with the biggest gains in agentic coding, long-running agentic workflows, and knowledge work: long code refactors, front-end and visual...
Seed 1.6 Paid
Seed 1.6 is a general-purpose model released by the ByteDance Seed team. It incorporates multimodal capabilities and adaptive deep thinking with a 256K context window.
Frequently asked questions
Claude Fable 5.1 vs Seed 1.6 — which is cheaper?
Seed 1.6 is cheaper on output ($2/M vs $50/M).
Which has the larger context window?
Claude Fable 5.1 offers the larger context window (1M tokens).
Claude Fable 5.1 vs Seed 1.6 — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose Seed 1.6 for the lower output price ($2/M vs $50/M). Choose Claude Fable 5.1 if you need the larger 1M context window.
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