AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Nemotron 3 Ultra Open vs Claude Fable 5.1 Paid

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Claude Fable 5.1 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Nemotron 3 UltraOpenNVIDIA
$0.63 /M input
$3.13 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window262K tokens
MultimodalNo
Self-hostYes
Claude Fable 5.1PaidAnthropic
$10 /M input
$50 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window1M tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Claude Fable 5.1 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Claude Fable 5.1 specs

SpecNemotron 3 UltraClaude Fable 5.1Winner
MakerNVIDIAAnthropic
TypeOpen-weightProprietaryNemotron 3 Ultra
Context window262K tokens1M tokensClaude Fable 5.1
Input price$0.63/M · free self-host$10/MNemotron 3 Ultra
Output price$3.13/M · free self-host$50/MNemotron 3 Ultra
Vision / multimodalNoYesClaude Fable 5.1
Tool / function callingYesYes= Tie
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)Nemotron 3 Ultra
LicenseNVIDIA Open ModelProprietaryNemotron 3 Ultra

Price gap & when to choose each

16×cheaper per output token

Nemotron 3 Ultra is ~16× cheaper than Claude Fable 5.1 on output tokens ($3.13 vs $50 per M tokens).

Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You want the lowest operating costs
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
Choose Claude Fable 5.1 if…
  • 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

Feature comparison

CapabilityNemotron 3 UltraClaude Fable 5.1
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Claude Fable 5.1

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Nemotron 3 Ultra delivers 7.9× more intelligence per dollar.
Nemotron 3 Ultra
Claude Fable 5.1
Intelligence index
23.4
53.4
Coding index
49.3
81.6
GPQA
86.7%
93.7%
Humanity's Last Exam
28.4%
59.1%
Long Context Reasoning
79.3%
85.3%
SciCode
40.3%
63.1%
IFBench
81.4%
τ²-Bench
83.3%
τ-Bench Banking
14.2%
47.2%
Terminal-Bench
53.9%
91.4%
Terminal-Bench Hard
36.4%
Speed
180.1 tok/s
66.7 tok/s
Latency
1.26s
137.76s
Intelligence per $
21.3
2.7

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Nemotron 3 Ultra and Claude Fable 5.1 score

🏆 Best value & openness: Nemotron 3 Ultra (4.3 vs 2.9 / 5)
CriterionNemotron 3 UltraClaude Fable 5.1
Cost-efficiency4.02.0
Context window4.05.0
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality3.55.0

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

Nemotron 3 Ultra Open

NVIDIA · Open-weight

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra is an open frontier-reasoning and orchestration model from NVIDIA, with 55B active parameters out of 550B total (MoE). Built on a hybrid Transformer-Mamba mixture-of-experts architecture, it...

Claude Fable 5.1 Paid

Anthropic · Proprietary

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...

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
Nemotron 3 Ultra (free)Nemotron 3 SuperNemotron 3.5 LightningNemotron 3.5 Lightning (free)Nemotron 3 Super (free)Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNemotron 3.5 Content SafetyNemotron 3.5 Content Safety (free)

Frequently asked questions

Is Nemotron 3 Ultra as good as Claude Fable 5.1?

Nemotron 3 Ultra is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Claude Fable 5.1 may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Nemotron 3 Ultra locally?

Yes. Nemotron 3 Ultra has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Claude Fable 5.1 is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Nemotron 3 Ultra costs $3.13/M output vs $50/M for Claude Fable 5.1 — roughly 16x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Claude Fable 5.1 — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Claude Fable 5.1 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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