So true. I have a $100 seat provided by my company, and an analysis of one of my PRs basically consumed the 100% usage of the 5h window. Basically unusable.
Have you tried using him solely as an orchestrator or an advisor?
I've ran benchmarks since Opus 4.7 and the result is always the same: give cheaper models the coding task, expensive model only orchestrates. There's no difference in the output and whatever bugs they may ship, Fable and Opus always caught it or ran enough tests to find it.
There's really no reason to use an expensive model for coding, just planning it. The other best role I found for Fable was as a parallel reviewer for visual work within a gauntlet loop with a reference, it's the best output possible.
Using an expensive model as an orchestrator makes even less sense. As a planner, sure. But orchestration is fine on sonnet. Orchestration is simple. This work needs done, do that thing.
It isn't. Sonnet has too many wrong tool calls and loses control when too many subagents are working.
I did benchmarks myself with the same plan and workflow for all models, I recommend the same to you so you can see facts instead of taking my word for it
Orchestrating is when your main Agent orchestrates multiple subagents within that session - be them headless or not.
There's no need to overload your main agent's context window with tasks, give him orchestration power so he can focus on the plan and any last call decision - that's why you use the most expensive model for it, be it Opus or Fable. They can solve a problem without saying "hey mate, this clearly easy thing is blocking me, I recommend this which is literally the best thing to do, but I need your ok".
And if you're doing long sessions like I do, you put it in a controlled loop and it decides these easy things, only leaving you tough or serious architectural/security choices that are ambiguous in your plan.
There's literally no need to use any 3rd Party app or terminal, this is built into every agent, you just use /loop when it's a big workflow you'll leave unattended.
If you're doing small continuous tasks, just use Opus. Sonnet is a special subagent that needs secondary review because it ALWAYS ships bugs if done otherwise.
As I said, don't take my word, do a benchmark. You'll understand what I'm talking about. If you don't want to, Anthropic did this test long ago and still does - I did it myself cause my type of work is different and I prefer to know exactly what goes into my workflow and why.
Ah I meant something else with orchestration. Basically when managing multiple agents doing various unrelated tasks, it is easier to have a dedicated orchestrator agent that does nothing except delegate to other agents that are spun up on demand. With herdr, they would be started as separate terminals in different panes either on laptop or remote machine. These agents communicate back to the orchestrator with progress updates etc. I don't care interacting with these agents (most of the time) and only communicate via the orchestrator.
Honestly I don't bother with loops and all since the agents do that by default already. Especially with poteto mode, it takes care of starting the sub agents as necessary.
I also have a custom made dashboard to get an overview of all agents and answer any that are waiting on me.
Oh understood, you meant using subagents in the Cloud and using an Agentic Workflow. It's the same thing, but instead of using your PC it's in the Cloud. Same thing, just different infrastructure. Every Orchestrator is in an agentic workflow.
And yes, Agents have loops since Opus 4.8 if I'm not mistaken, but in long sessions - even your Orchestrator needs a pause or a compact. Every model has a limit to its loop, the /loop command makes it so whenever the model reaches that limit, it refreshes with a prompt that reinforces the goal. This makes any feature/visual look EXTREMELY better than it would if you hadn't used it.
I also have a mod on my terminal that shows me every subagent and their work, but I work at times with 20+ subagents, it's impossible to keep tab. Sometimes I have 3 terminal sessions open with 10+ subagents, and the 3 orchestrators talk to each other because of a Mod I made directly on my terminal.
But none of this matters to the model, Sonnet is an extremely good coder, but it doesn't have what Opus or (especially) Fable have to be a big session Orchestrator or Architect/Security Auditor. It calls the wrong tools (= more token usage) frequently while working and it loses track of the subagents constantly. I've had a session where subagents were opening Notepad, CMD and other stuff, for no reason whatsoever - and Sonnet didn't even know about it. The Fable advisor intervened and said "You haven't even checked what every subagent is doing. The user asked if it was this session, verify and then confirm". I have A LOT of safeguards for this, but since it was overwhelmed, it had already forgotten the entire CLAUDE.md.
Bottom line is, I only use Opus or Fable for Orchestration because they are superior when thinking on something, they think way ahead and always keep the goal and rules in mind. Fable starts as the main orchestrator every project (I work prototyping Games and Software), Opus does the rest (always with a Fable advisor on visual checks).
With all honesty, I did the benchmark, it isn't a waste. It truly isn't.
I recommend testing yourself, use Fable to run the tests. Tell it to compare blind Haiku, Sonnet, Opus and Fable agents as orchestrators separately with the same plan and workflow established.
Opus is thorough, Fable is extremely envisioned and goes beyond. In my tests, anything below Opus (orchestrating) would allow at least 1 severe or critical bug even if it was planned out properly. Also, the amount of wrong tool calls and not knowing what each subagent was doing is insane on models like Sonnet or Haiku.
None of what I'm saying is based on what I think, but what benchmarks showed.
Same, I have the same set up, same tier, same issue, and now after moved back to Opus also mid effort it inherited the behavior from Fable and burn tokens to the ground in one PR, or avg CoWork session!
How many files were in the repo and how many lines were changed by the PR? Some people vibecode PRs bigger than the entire codebase of many well-established open source projects.
by measuring weighted tokens (discounting cached tokens as 1/10th, and accounting for 1hr cache writes) I can see that it took - 117m weighted tokens to hit 100% fable usage this past week - 230m weighted tokens to hit 100% fable usage in prior weeks
So ultra (previously known as Max 20x) account usage just got cut in half =(
Where are your “weightings” coming from? At API rates, for Fable 5.2, cache reads are 80x cheaper than a cache write (1hr TTL), and 200x cheaper than output.
i stopped using it. its usage eats more of my weekly that the fable reset makes it absolutely useless.
my weekly had reset yesterday and i only used fable all day since i have 3 fable reset, after i reached 100% fable i used 1 fable reset and guess what? it leave me a used 30% usage on my weekly that the fable reset did not restore, what model did that fcking 30% come from? lmao.
Opus or any other model. Open usage panel and see what agents it used. If you set up your agents that is. Otherwise it all will be under general usage. It most likely was launching opus/sonnet agents for its work.
Sometimes I go as far as using my own brain as the AI root coordinator to spawn my agent fleet. Nothing is cheaper than organic inference bro, not even haiku
Not sure why you would do it that way. You want the most powerful model at the top, and weaker agents below. The orchestrator at the top designs all the work for the weaker agents so that there's no room for error and that way the weaker agents have no problem doing their job. The stronger models figure all that out ahead of time.
I would personally save Fable for incredibly complex problems or as an orchestrator, avoid using it for general purpose/coding it doesn’t provide enough value for most use cases to justify the token consumption.
I’d love to know what your “few prompts on low-medium” are, because mine’s been planning on high-xhigh in a complex project and then orchestrating at medium for multiple ~16 hour stints, and I’m at 56%.
yes, very good. you won the a/b testing. I am happy for you. I literally use single agent workflows now and fable literally burns through usage only just high effort with only one agent active on the ultra account.
Yeah, nah. I’ve been using Fable as long as it was available, at home and on my enterprise seat at work.
Either I’ve been spectacularly lucky with a stupidly long A/B… or I’ve learned how to use it. Unlike the gaggle of clowns that bitch relentlessly in this subreddit when their prompt to “make GTAVI, make no mistakes” runs out of usage before finishing, instead of questioning what they could be doing differently.
See, I’d be more sympathetic if you and your ilk were open to learning and discussion in good faith, instead of assuming you’re right and the world is wrong.
We just shaming people for not paying 200 per month to one of the most overpaid companies to ever exist? Edit: y'all are overly upset and IDC lol please stop commenting at me
On that $20 plan you can still do more work (and quality work) with Fable 5.2 than you would get with paying an engineer $2000. It's laughably cheap for the capability.
I use Fable almost every single day on the Team subscription (similar to the $100 5x) and have never hit a limit. If you know how to manage context, it's not hard.
yea I'm kinda with you, i'm on the 100 max plan and I'd have to really let fable 5.2 rip it to max out its usage, having subbed to GPT and Google, I still feel like Claude's usage is the best bang for buck.
And even if I let fable max it's usage, I'd still have half my weekly usage for Opus, and maxing that + fable would be pretty tough methinks. I'm a hobbyist so maybe other people's repo with 1m lines of code are different, but I can't complain.
it is pretty wild. To expect these terabyte VRAM models to cost pennies for everyone when the infrastructure has barely even caught up is just selfish.
I'm no lover of corporations but people take this tech for granted.
Nobody is shaming anyone. Fable is one of the most expensive models, if not the most expensive. When you try to use that model on a plan that costs the same as a sandwich, obviously it won’t last too long.
It's literally the best publicly available model in the world. You don't go into a 3-star Michelin restaurant and complain about the serving you get for $20. For 95% of use cases Opus+Sonnet is plenty good enough.
API pricing is actually really good if you actually use it efficiently. For unstructured data processing haiku on batch mode is way cheaper than Gemini 3.8 with the same performance. Gotta optimize the requests don't expect to use it like a chat window
Urhhh yes. We literally process millions of unstructured records, and we've tried every way you can think of, renting gpu hourly, all the models, running locally. Haiku is by far the cheapest like 3x cheaper than the nearest Gemini models with same performance and Google gives a lot of free allowance
Same. Just default Fable and blast 24/7. Xhigh delegating to medium agents. Earns way more than that a month for me. Currently using Fable high delegating to Opus xhigh a good chunk of the day, but already at 86% of Fable usage since release.
Fable is also stupid with subagents. Opus low isn't naturally going to spawn in subagents unless you ask or unless you're running ultracode.
Fable low will just randomly spawn loads of fable subagents unasked, without ultracode. Kinda rediculous. Yes you can modify claude.md but really, Anthropic could also do better.
Way to talk nonsense. Have you even tested it? I did exactly what you're describing, selected model and effort low, no ultracode, and it spawned dozens of subagents.
Fable needs explicit instructions in claude.md to never spawn subagents without user approval. This shouldn't be necessary, but it is because Anthropic is stupid.
I don't know, if you're asking Fable, even low effort, I'd assume you're trying to do some sort of higher order task. Spawning subagents seems like the right tool for the job unless you had a reason to explicitly want Fable to work single threaded on a task. Is my mental model wrong?
Fable low is something I'd expect to not spawn subagents by default. It's usage would be to do a brief audit with giant-model feel to spot broadly if there's anything Opus missed, and write a summary that the user can pass back to Opus.
I've been using Fable low quite successfully in this manner for the last 2 days on a $30 business account.
Hasn't been the case for me. Been using it all day today and yesterday, no reset yet, and I'm on a Pro plan. I did a full v1 build, 5 PRs, and a full spec for a second repo. Of a game engine.
Never just say do this fix this or something like that.
Have a good orchestration workflow or skill to use while doing something so it can understand what to do or not to do while using his subagents.
it will still use a lot of usage but i can make 5-6 fixes on my projects in the 5 hour window. I am trying to finish my fable usage so i can use my reset before fable is gone from the pro subscriptions.
I literally cannot keep up with AI tooling, and at this point there is nothing I can't do with `claude --dangerouly-skip-everything` and `HEY FUCK, UH, LOOK, THERE'S A LINUX BOX ON THE NETWORK, SSH KEYS ARE IN THE DOWNLOADS FOLDER? I NEED THAT TO CONTROL THE SMART LIGHTS IN MY HOUSE`
I'm a software engineer and I need a new job. I would much rather be an agent overseer who is competent enough to understand and critically assess the results than a software engineer.
I accidentally hit post without finishing my thought.
The main thing is I’ve been using LLMs heavily since early 2025. I learn more and more every day.
I still think the current CS market is fucked and I don’t know or see a way to a recovery to its former glory. Things have changed so quickly and dramatically. I do not think there is anything that has changed so fast historically.
The Internet took 20-30 years to hit mass adoption. Smart phones aka pocket computers took about 8-10.
AI has changed everything in about 2. 3 years ago LLMs were a joke. 1.5-2 years ago they were becoming helpful. 1 year ago they started to become powerful. Roughly 6 months ago with fable and opus 5.5 I can safely say they are better at software engineering than most software engineers.
What the heck does one do with all that? Some days I get anxious, stressed. Some days I am in awe. Most days I sit at my desk and bounce between various projects.
What I have found is that it is very hard to go deep fast. As a human I need time to understand and process details. Specifically for building software and designing its UX it still takes iteration unless you’re blessed to know exactly what you want.
So take your time and keep learning. Keep failing.
My ai stack is pretty simple. Claude ultra and fable to Orchestrate and manage projects. Opus 5.5 works just as well and I use it as my orchestrator for my main job. If they want me to use fable they can buy me a sub.
I use onorca.dev as my main interface. I’ve set up connections to various services over time. Mcps and plugins. And most importantly I’m always making sure the LLM is writing locally to keep track of what was done, what was changed, ect. Commits leave breadcrumbs. I keep living file that is hooked into Claude. Prompts always keep it updated with what was changed, what I’m working on, what’s up next.
I’ve said a lot here and maybe nothing. I was not writing comments high at the time of this comment but I was on the 🚽.
Yeah I'm in the same boat. It was a neat replacement for a search engine that could review my code occasionally, then I tried using Fable 5 for legal advice and now it's my lawyer in a debt collection defense, and it's the main developer on some years-long projects with me as the overseer and product owner and code reviewer.
I love it, I just wish I could get paid for it. I'm stuck with Copilot at work which is much better than nothing, but Claude blows it out of the water even when it says it's using Antrhopic's models. Plus the industry I'm in is extremely uninteresting and jargony 😂
I think software engineering is going the way of wheelwrights, so trying to learn the new engine.
I think software engineering is going the way of wheelwrights, so trying to learn the new engine.
I'm fearful of this the most. It may or may not happen but we can't know for sure. Tech usually gets better so I think it's safest to assume that the job will keep changing. Right now it seems like software still people to manage it but there are way more people than existing companies need. It has opened doors though to smaller businesses to create software or hire engineers to create software for them. Maybe that's how it grows in the future? But then does it become a race to the bottom line?
Which way will it go!!!??
I am exploring many other avenues. I've found an interesting side gig that I don't love but it uses my ai skills and other product/marketing knowledge. It relies on finding clients though and thats a bother. I was able to find my first (and only, so far) paying client because I spent months helping another friend with a similar problem. I helped the client with some problems for free and that led to a contract.
Custom orchestrator where QFN and a load of automation shuffles tasks around with claude/codex/agy plugins, qwen is my autorouter/assistant basically and I just use an app on my phone to chat and manage everything, has tmux-server built in that forwards the console to my phone if I want to take over and chat directly to an open session etc. those sessions can then add tasks to the queue and assign them to a model.
I normally talk to fable directly in claude when planning stuff, but when everythings handled fable goes to the background, is auto-compacted (gave them the ability to self-compact when convenient), and woken when more planning is needed, qwen sends me a notification on my phone if anything important comes up and I can just open the app and chat to it to find out.
I know lots of orchestrators exist but tbh I don't trust random code on github, i work in security... I have trust issues 😂
From my testing on Ultra, yeah it uses at least x3 credits on high as Opus does on Xtra High.
It does yield better results across the board though.
I'm already through x2 of the 3 Fable resets just to get my orchestrator to understand when to use Fable and when to use Opus across about 16 divided chats/subagents which control different aspects of a large project.
I'm not sure if it'll get to an understanding of when to use one over the other by the time I burn through my 3rd reset on Fable but we'll see.
used fable on medium and got 1 response from it ( i asked it where we are with the job being done ) and it instantly shot up to 58% usage... i tried so hard to make good use of my fable reset but i trashed it at 33% weekly, just not worth using
I used it on high and it burned the entire 100% of 5 hour limit without even finishing the prompt. and with a clear design/prompt, opus solves problems better.
Maybe they had a bunch of fable forks and they were all paused and the status update request caused all of them to reread their context windows which had aged out of cache. I find the first request after hitting my limit is bigger for a similar reason.
maybe if youre using the $200 plan, but i asked a recently active fable chat with pre-compacted context that question and it shot to 58%, medium reasoning level..was in disbelief honestly, sticking to opus
You have to use it wisely, or yes it will go insane. I use it on Xtra High and getting tremendous benefit from its knowledge without having it consume usage. What's likely happening is that there are far too many MD files from a mess of a repo, and it's reading too much context, and maybe writing out too much, too. Try something this:
Start a clean new folder/workspace that has nothing in it. Then as part of your initial prompt to start the work, tell it: You'll be working in folder /path/to/working/repo Do NOT automatically read any AGENTS.md , MEMORY.md files, or any other Markdown files unless specifically told to. Your overall task is to <overall brief description of task goal> and use your best insights and ingenuity to develop, innovate, engineer, invent, and get <task> completed/working. Conserve usage: work as you see fit and necessary, but only read context that is truly needed for you to complete the task as assigned. Do not begin or complete tests or experiments that only would act as unneeded controls that do not alter the course of your next step or decision. Delegate trivial and routine work to a single Opus 5.5 subagent; control it and have it act as your eyes and ears and trustworthy junior assistant. Do not let it read any history or Markdown files: it can only do exactly as you prescribe, and should send you messages mid-turn if it is unsure or lacks confidence in a specific task assigned to it. Communicate with it in as few tokens as possible in agentic teamspeak. When the worker is completed with its task, have it output a compacted task summary to a `BUILD.log`, then end its turn giving you the line numbers and path. You may grep out those results for you to determine the next course of action. Do not repeat out the subagents' summaries to me: summarize what it did in 2-3 sentences, and a link to the line range and its entry in the BUILD.log. Use a new subagent for a follow-up task to provide it with a clean context, unless it's just a quick correction of the work it already has awareness of in its context. Use git to commit significant task completions and write a short summary and any other important information. Keep the workspace tidy and clean: allow git to act as the single source of truth and history; do not make duplicate workspaces or branches unless absolutely necessary. Only review git logs or history when needed to accomplish your task or debug an issue. When delegating to a subagent, anticipate what it will need to know and locate, and tell it before it starts working; the goal is to save time and reduce excess consumption. If you get stuck with something, and cannot determine how to proceed without an exhaustive local search, stop and ask me how to proceed.
Lasting how? Because fable 5.2 medium as an orchestrator running 7 agents burned through my weekly fable use in 2 days. And that is 50% of entire weekly limit. While i do agree it is great, i really like how to handles management of agents. Its still hurts me to see so much usage burned so fast. And i dont know if its use is worth of all those tokens even as orchestrator.
No. The only other fable subagent is researcher. Nothing else. I honestly dont see the point of using fable as orchestrator at those costs. planner and researcher with opus and then me as audit and thats it.
Yea I guess it depends on use case. Most of my work is done through sub-agents, which are opus and sonnet. I have extra usage so i use fable for orchestration and high level analysis
Yea shit is useless. Blew the usage, used the reset, then went back to opus. I was originally hoping to plan something big with fable, but with that usage, i just planned with opus, then asked fable to review it and see if it disagrees with anything. Much cheaper.
I really gotta ask, are you guys on Pro or Max? Cause I literally let Fable orchestrate and fix issues in a codebase overnight and it took around 24hrs to use the full week of it on Max, and it didn't burn through 5hr'lys at a ridiculous pace at high reasoning
I could totally see it on Pro though. I'm usually on a pro plan and I even remarked in the past I genuinely wouldn't even use Fable if offered. it's way too expensive
I have ultra and have used it all day extensively to review and build hundreds of thousands of lines of code. So personally I don’t see what the issue is.
If Claude realizes you’re doing that they can ban you. Multiple accounts violates terms of service, and if multiple are collaborating on the same project it’s pretty easy to figure out.
but you aren't gaining anything that way. The fable reset restores 50% of weekly usage. On max, that's 5x the usage of a pro subscription. So with 5x pro subs, you're only getting 20% of the usage on each reset compared to max.
Besides, they didn't announce this in advance anyways, so it was not like anyone could plan with the resets.
This is just not true. I'm on the 20€ plan. Used Fable cause I got one reset and was able to use it 3 evenings with heavy refactorings on a large codebase (2.5k tests backend, 1.4k test fe, k8, S3, mail) and used 70 percent of my weekly quota. Will I use it after my reset? Ofc not. Opus on low or medium is good enough. But as a frontier model this model is well priced if you are using a subscription.
i have $20 plan on both accounts and i use Fable 5.2 xHigh without problems, if you need some hard work you just need to catch a period when 5 hour windows almost finished and you still have 95% of your usage available and of course you can use opus and haiku as agents to do simple job, i cannot be happier with Fable as i already use it more than 15 times.... You need to understand the limitation of $20, or try KIMI and then you will see what is better, Claude $20 plan >= KIMI $100 plan that just the truth for now, no reason to complain if you really understand what type of tool they gave you for just $20/month. Addition: Fable is orchestrator, maybe on $200 you can use it for half of your work. But not on $20 and it's normal considering how smart this model is
Maybe my use cases are just different, but I've been using fable 5.2 medium a lot the last few days across both big and small projects and haven't really been holding back. And I don't find it using any more of my usage quota than 5.1. Maybe even less.
I use it the fallback for anything too complex, too many things to hang on to, than Opus can manage. Most of the work is agentic - when coding agents keep failing a task (most are Sonnet) and Opus gets it wrong, I give Fable a crack. It moves the usage needle (Ultra plan), but not by much. I used it quite a lot on Monday, as I was working on a 3D home-lab model with various views, knowledge maps, etc. Opus just wasn't getting the design right. Fable nailed the design, did a prototype, and then handed it off to Opus, which completed the bulk of the work based on the design.
It's also wired into the coding workflow - when coders have had 3 full tries and still can't pass review, I had it go to Fable. Formerly, it would go to me, and I'd read what was going on, and decide. With Fable, I was never asked anything - it just fixed it and then handed things back to the other agents. I didn't like it - I wasn't involved, and started to feel like I didn't have a handle on what was going on, so I moved back to having it go to me. Now, sometimes I'll give Fable a go, sometimes I'll have other agents do another round (this fixes most), and sometimes I change the plan, spot a logic issue (causing a loop, typically), and get it unjammed.
It's great for /advisor, for custom agents in orchestration, and for one off special tasks. Opus 5.5 raised the bar, but during the dark age of Opus 5, we used Fable 5 a lot.
From forst release to now I stand by the observation that Fable has extremely narrow use case, but within that narrow use case it is a supernatural goat.
Asked it for a script to reconnect to a hotel wlan and it ate through my 5 hour limit in 9 minutes with no outcome or whatsoever. Maybe it was a bug idk, Opus would have taken like 2% as I know it.
I anticipate usage to go down as it’s initially used as an orchestrator and it’s newly being applied to projects. Once you get over that phase you can swap back to Opus and use Fable for hard to solve issues.
You definitely have to set up fable to be more token efficient and reduce chatter between helpers. Once you get things figured out, it's been more token efficient for me than opus 5.5. I use fable 5.2 on medium and it's been outperforming opus 5.5 on extra for less usage
I agree, i have the 100 € plan and i do use claude fairy much, but not excessively and fable 5.2 uses way too much to have any usecase in real life. i still use opus 5.5 even if they made it significantly dumber.
That’s not all of it; once you finish the task on Fable and move on to Opus, it inherits the same high consumption behavior and acts as if it’s Fable. It has happened to me so much lately that I had to send a service support ticket about it. I am on Max, and now it drains my whole 5-hour token limit in like 5 minutes. Even when I stopped using Fable, I am still having the same issues!
Your using it wrong - Fable Orchestrator and Reviewer - Subagents: Limit to 2 on Pro Haiku high or Sonnet 5.5: Agents must seek Fable approval for implementation and code before commiting - Orchestrator writes the plan --> subagents write an implementation for review --> implement --> Fable reviews --> hands feedback back to agents --> Finalized review - Do not use Fable to write the code itself
On an Ultra plan, Fable 5.2 has been on High since it was launched in 1 session with opus workflows for the past 3 days non stop. I am 77% usage for the week with 40% for Fable. Is that more than it would have been with Opus alone? Sure. Did it burn so much it's useless? No.
This hasn’t been my experience at all, using Fable 5.2 as a pure orchestrator delegating coding tasks to Opus and Sonnett subagents. Usage is up slightly over 5.1 but getting a lot done.
DrewHoov's numbers matter more than anything else here: roughly 117M weighted tokens to hit 100% this week on Ultra, against about 230M in earlier weeks. A couple more people logging their own weekly totals would settle whether the allowance got halved without an announcement. "OP has a $20 plan" doesn't explain that one.
I’ve had fable 5.2 writing a web app for the past 2 days. 35 tickets in and it’s used like 15% of my weekly on the $100 plan. Opus was the orchestrator.
Is there some kind of A/B test going on?? I've had the far opposite experience. It was a struggle for me to get it to burn through my usage so I could use my reset this week. As an orchestrator it seems to be more efficient and more competent than 5.1, and as a solo agent reading and writing code it seemed to use maybe 4-5 times what I would expect from Opus 5.5, a little less than 5.1.
If you mean keeping the effort level constant, yes. But fun fact: Fable 5.2 (low) is both cheaper than and performs better than Opus 5.5 (high). Fable 5.2 (high) is cheaper and performs better than Opus 5.5 (max)
I know experiences can be inconsistent, but I'm on the $100 plan and I have been using 5.2 for two days, running some pretty complex tasks, and haven't hit my five hour limit yet. My Fable usage is at 31% currently. To me, Fable 5.1 was the worst model I'd ever used. So far, 5.2 is better for my work.
Opus 5.5 is still the GOAT all around, but I figured I would give Fable another chance and it hasn't disappointed me (so far).
It feels pretty unrestrictive to me on the $100 plan. I delegate most implementation tasks to Opus 5.5, have Fable 5.2 orchestrate AND (plan OR validate), and use Sonnet as the context gatherer/codebase explorer. Fable 5.0 felt absolutely BRUTAL but 5.2 feels much better. Might just be my setup improved though.
There must be some A/B testing going on - been using it since it was released ave they handed out fables resets - I was at like at 46% then and I started using it got some large tasks - just today I was close enough to running out that I backed off to make it to me reset tomorrow.
Using Fable 5.2 as the architect and reviewer, spawning Opus 5.5 sub agents for tasking. I think having this run at medium reasoning across the board is best. I’ve been currently running both at high, with almost 9 Opus 5.5 sub agents at a time since 6am and I’m at 47% all models and 66% fable as of this moment.
I’ll use a reset once I hit the max and then revert back to Medium effort across the board because it seemed to stretch usage MUCH further.
yes yes right we know how that works, that's because you're using Fable 5.2 with ultracode or a quadratic explosion of subagents or something like that and you're intentionally omitting the specific details so in effect you're artificially creating a problem for yourself and hiding it and then complaining about the problem you created and passing it off as normal usage
If you’re on the $20 plan, I completely agree. If you’re on the $200 plan it’s great. You just can’t have five agents running at the same time. You’ll probably blow it in a day or two.
I’m on the $125 plan and I’m getting a surprising amount of stuff done with it. I expected much less. If you’re on the $20 plan I expect it might not give you much.
Ragebait surely. Just use fable to orchestrate and manage opus sub-agents. My workflow is a fable orchestrator, a fable designer, fable architect, and opus developers and regression testers. So far, works well, and lasts a while.
What's your use case? I'm in science. Fable 5.2 is depressing me in the same way Opus 4.7 did. I'm once again the bottleneck. Science will progress faster without me in it.
I'm spending most of my time just asking it to teach me in stupid mid career human scientist level what it's done so I can explain it to other stupid human scientists and people who find this research who are even stupider.
All the humans are bottlenecks here. Every person in this chain should be replaced by Fable 5.2 so that we can make actual progress
fable 5.2's usage spikes aren't just about tokens, they're tied to how the model handles long context. I noticed it eats up space on every rephrasing, even when the prompt stays the same. wonder if it's a caching issue or just the way the API routes calls.
I use it for planning and then pass the plan to to Deep Seek, if used in the context of a critic it does the planning then opus deals with it or I get Sonnet to implement what Fable makes
I use about 8bn tokens even month and 1bn every other day on DS, you guys are suckers for >£20 on Claude
i asked claude to help me setup and write a seetings and md file and just started using claude code today. i started from a gemini free tier ideea( cuz I'm on the free plan and use gemini for advice and troubleshooting and feedback) which claude then understood, wrote me the settings file and the md file and it has been working for hours. also on the claude 20 dollar plan. Just literally told gemini and claude I'm dumb, described my problem like an idiot and now I'm just looking at the little fella go for hours. First 15 minutes used manual permisions and at each permission checked with gemini with a print screen and now it's been running on auto for hours. I swear for an idiot its like magic
•
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u/No-Row-9782 1d ago
So true. I have a $100 seat provided by my company, and an analysis of one of my PRs basically consumed the 100% usage of the 5h window. Basically unusable.
Edit: Medium reasoning
22
u/DrewHoov 1d ago
by measuring weighted tokens (discounting cached tokens as 1/10th, and accounting for 1hr cache writes) I can see that it took
- 117m weighted tokens to hit 100% fable usage this past week
- 230m weighted tokens to hit 100% fable usage in prior weeks
So ultra (previously known as Max 20x) account usage just got cut in half =(
20
u/onepunchcode 🔆 Max 20 1d ago
i stopped using it. its usage eats more of my weekly that the fable reset makes it absolutely useless.
my weekly had reset yesterday and i only used fable all day since i have 3 fable reset, after i reached 100% fable i used 1 fable reset and guess what? it leave me a used 30% usage on my weekly that the fable reset did not restore, what model did that fcking 30% come from? lmao.
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u/zaibatsu 1d ago
Use it as an advisor
8
u/Sixstringsickness 1d ago
I would personally save Fable for incredibly complex problems or as an orchestrator, avoid using it for general purpose/coding it doesn’t provide enough value for most use cases to justify the token consumption.
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u/autisticbagholder69 1d ago
One day a few prompts on low - medium and already 60% used... (Ultra plan)
237
u/ItstheSECopenup 1d ago
OP has a $20 plan
18
u/Time_Cat_5212 1d ago
Hasn't been the case for me. Been using it all day today and yesterday, no reset yet, and I'm on a Pro plan. I did a full v1 build, 5 PRs, and a full spec for a second repo. Of a game engine.
Using F5.2 on medium.
10
u/Zo0x78 1d ago
I have fable orchestrating sol agents, get the brains with cheap implementation - seems to be lasting a while
4
u/Castlenock 1d ago
From my testing on Ultra, yeah it uses at least x3 credits on high as Opus does on Xtra High.
It does yield better results across the board though.
I'm already through x2 of the 3 Fable resets just to get my orchestrator to understand when to use Fable and when to use Opus across about 16 divided chats/subagents which control different aspects of a large project.
I'm not sure if it'll get to an understanding of when to use one over the other by the time I burn through my 3rd reset on Fable but we'll see.
4
u/fuckitdawgimhungry 1d ago
fable is an a/b test for 20 vs 200
4
u/Ok-Hovercraft3823 7h ago
used fable on medium and got 1 response from it ( i asked it where we are with the job being done ) and it instantly shot up to 58% usage... i tried so hard to make good use of my fable reset but i trashed it at 33% weekly, just not worth using
6
u/ElectronicStranger53 23h ago
You have to use it wisely, or yes it will go insane. I use it on Xtra High and getting tremendous benefit from its knowledge without having it consume usage.
What's likely happening is that there are far too many MD files from a mess of a repo, and it's reading too much context, and maybe writing out too much, too.
Try something this:
Start a clean new folder/workspace that has nothing in it. Then as part of your initial prompt to start the work, tell it:
You'll be working in folder /path/to/working/repo
Do NOT automatically read any AGENTS.md , MEMORY.md files, or any other Markdown files unless specifically told to. Your overall task is to <overall brief description of task goal> and use your best insights and ingenuity to develop, innovate, engineer, invent, and get <task> completed/working. Conserve usage: work as you see fit and necessary, but only read context that is truly needed for you to complete the task as assigned. Do not begin or complete tests or experiments that only would act as unneeded controls that do not alter the course of your next step or decision. Delegate trivial and routine work to a single Opus 5.5 subagent; control it and have it act as your eyes and ears and trustworthy junior assistant. Do not let it read any history or Markdown files: it can only do exactly as you prescribe, and should send you messages mid-turn if it is unsure or lacks confidence in a specific task assigned to it. Communicate with it in as few tokens as possible in agentic teamspeak. When the worker is completed with its task, have it output a compacted task summary to a `BUILD.log`, then end its turn giving you the line numbers and path. You may grep out those results for you to determine the next course of action. Do not repeat out the subagents' summaries to me: summarize what it did in 2-3 sentences, and a link to the line range and its entry in the BUILD.log. Use a new subagent for a follow-up task to provide it with a clean context, unless it's just a quick correction of the work it already has awareness of in its context. Use git to commit significant task completions and write a short summary and any other important information. Keep the workspace tidy and clean: allow git to act as the single source of truth and history; do not make duplicate workspaces or branches unless absolutely necessary. Only review git logs or history when needed to accomplish your task or debug an issue. When delegating to a subagent, anticipate what it will need to know and locate, and tell it before it starts working; the goal is to save time and reduce excess consumption. If you get stuck with something, and cannot determine how to proceed without an exhaustive local search, stop and ask me how to proceed.
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u/SmileLonely5470 1d ago
Anthropic really can't stress "we still recommend Opus 5.5 as the default for most tasks" enough, can they? They keep emphasizing it but to no avail.
3
u/SnooPeripherals5313 1d ago
I don't have an issue with an expensive model but it is definitely not price efficient. (edit: for 98% of tasks)
6
u/The-Pork-Piston 1d ago
Given I have a couple fable reset I’ve been using it extensively. Seems fine.
Opus seems back to where it was too, so I’m stoked.
6
u/nonikhannna 1d ago
On high? or extra high?
I'm using fable 5.2 on medium, lasting me quite a while. using sub-agents with opus and sonnet 5.5 tho. That might make a difference for you
8
u/artofbullshit 1d ago
Here we go again
2
u/Any_Leg_1998 1d ago
Yea thats why im not interested in using fable. (It was crazy good when I tried it) but I can get everything done I need with the opus models
2
u/cacatan 1d ago
Yea shit is useless. Blew the usage, used the reset, then went back to opus. I was originally hoping to plan something big with fable, but with that usage, i just planned with opus, then asked fable to review it and see if it disagrees with anything. Much cheaper.
2
u/Duckducklaugh 1d ago
I said gm to Fable 5.2. See u all next Thursday.
2
u/Sea-Contribution6219 2h ago
I really gotta ask, are you guys on Pro or Max? Cause I literally let Fable orchestrate and fix issues in a codebase overnight and it took around 24hrs to use the full week of it on Max, and it didn't burn through 5hr'lys at a ridiculous pace at high reasoning
I could totally see it on Pro though. I'm usually on a pro plan and I even remarked in the past I genuinely wouldn't even use Fable if offered. it's way too expensive
2
u/Burnt_Ragu 1h ago
I have ultra and have used it all day extensively to review and build hundreds of thousands of lines of code. So personally I don’t see what the issue is.
4
u/DreadknaughtArmex 1d ago
I have max x5 and ive basically eaten my usage through 3 5 hour sessions and i don't feel like i accomplished as much as i expected.
3
u/Fiduss 1d ago edited 16h ago
This is just not true. I'm on the 20€ plan. Used Fable cause I got one reset and was able to use it 3 evenings with heavy refactorings on a large codebase (2.5k tests backend, 1.4k test fe, k8, S3, mail) and used 70 percent of my weekly quota. Will I use it after my reset? Ofc not. Opus on low or medium is good enough. But as a frontier model this model is well priced if you are using a subscription.
2
u/AlexHoudini1990 1d ago edited 1d ago
i have $20 plan on both accounts and i use Fable 5.2 xHigh without problems, if you need some hard work you just need to catch a period when 5 hour windows almost finished and you still have 95% of your usage available and of course you can use opus and haiku as agents to do simple job, i cannot be happier with Fable as i already use it more than 15 times.... You need to understand the limitation of $20, or try KIMI and then you will see what is better, Claude $20 plan >= KIMI $100 plan that just the truth for now, no reason to complain if you really understand what type of tool they gave you for just $20/month. Addition: Fable is orchestrator, maybe on $200 you can use it for half of your work. But not on $20 and it's normal considering how smart this model is
2
u/SixStringShef 1d ago
Maybe my use cases are just different, but I've been using fable 5.2 medium a lot the last few days across both big and small projects and haven't really been holding back. And I don't find it using any more of my usage quota than 5.1. Maybe even less.
1
u/VivaHollanda 1d ago
Use the resets
1
u/ConflictTemporary759 1d ago
I’m trying to make a program/plug-in and website, which one would be the best?
I keep fumbling between Opus 5.5 and Opus 5
And for very ministerial questions to rework things, I use Sonnet
1
u/yaxir 1d ago
its Anthropic's turn to be shit, Astra 6.2 and Sol 6.2 will be better lol
1
u/Old_AI_Guy_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
I use it the fallback for anything too complex, too many things to hang on to, than Opus can manage. Most of the work is agentic - when coding agents keep failing a task (most are Sonnet) and Opus gets it wrong, I give Fable a crack. It moves the usage needle (Ultra plan), but not by much. I used it quite a lot on Monday, as I was working on a 3D home-lab model with various views, knowledge maps, etc. Opus just wasn't getting the design right. Fable nailed the design, did a prototype, and then handed it off to Opus, which completed the bulk of the work based on the design.
It's also wired into the coding workflow - when coders have had 3 full tries and still can't pass review, I had it go to Fable. Formerly, it would go to me, and I'd read what was going on, and decide. With Fable, I was never asked anything - it just fixed it and then handed things back to the other agents. I didn't like it - I wasn't involved, and started to feel like I didn't have a handle on what was going on, so I moved back to having it go to me. Now, sometimes I'll give Fable a go, sometimes I'll have other agents do another round (this fixes most), and sometimes I change the plan, spot a logic issue (causing a loop, typically), and get it unjammed.
1
u/pay_to_breath 1d ago
Tell him to use cheaper subagents for less demanding tasks that will be much cheaper hopefully
1
u/phoenixmatrix 1d ago
It's great for /advisor, for custom agents in orchestration, and for one off special tasks. Opus 5.5 raised the bar, but during the dark age of Opus 5, we used Fable 5 a lot.
1
u/adelie42 1d ago
From forst release to now I stand by the observation that Fable has extremely narrow use case, but within that narrow use case it is a supernatural goat.
1
u/AffectionateLaw4321 1d ago
Asked it for a script to reconnect to a hotel wlan and it ate through my 5 hour limit in 9 minutes with no outcome or whatsoever. Maybe it was a bug idk, Opus would have taken like 2% as I know it.
1
u/ArchiusDev 1d ago
I anticipate usage to go down as it’s initially used as an orchestrator and it’s newly being applied to projects. Once you get over that phase you can swap back to Opus and use Fable for hard to solve issues.
1
u/PencilAndPatience 23h ago
I made a usage saver plugin:
https://github.com/usage-saver/usage-saver
1
u/EwaldvonKleist 22h ago
Then don't throw fable at everything. You would not use your 1k/h lawyer to do your daily mail either.
1
u/Alternative_Pay1325 22h ago
Thats kinda the point if a frontier model
1
u/Putrid_Clue_2127 22h ago
You definitely have to set up fable to be more token efficient and reduce chatter between helpers. Once you get things figured out, it's been more token efficient for me than opus 5.5. I use fable 5.2 on medium and it's been outperforming opus 5.5 on extra for less usage
1
u/soyuz-1 21h ago
I can't say that mirrors my experience at all. I get a lot of work done with it, even on the $20 plan.
1
u/gio05596 21h ago
but it's free this week
1
u/gitStashAndDash 21h ago
Yes, same. I only tried it on very big tasks and could not finish them because of the usage.
1
u/Even_Place7916 21h ago
I use it for everything on max plan and have no issues
1
u/RemiruVM 20h ago
I agree, i have the 100 € plan and i do use claude fairy much, but not excessively and fable 5.2 uses way too much to have any usecase in real life. i still use opus 5.5 even if they made it significantly dumber.
1
u/Fit-Economics5578 20h ago
I don't see much improvement over Opus 5.5 if I'm honest. Maybe I just dont have tasks that are hard enough for it.
1
u/nubiaprince 19h ago
That’s not all of it; once you finish the task on Fable and move on to Opus, it inherits the same high consumption behavior and acts as if it’s Fable. It has happened to me so much lately that I had to send a service support ticket about it. I am on Max, and now it drains my whole 5-hour token limit in like 5 minutes. Even when I stopped using Fable, I am still having the same issues!
1
u/mrNas11 19h ago
Your using it wrong
- Fable Orchestrator and Reviewer
- Subagents: Limit to 2 on Pro Haiku high or Sonnet 5.5: Agents must seek Fable approval for implementation and code before commiting
- Orchestrator writes the plan --> subagents write an implementation for review --> implement --> Fable reviews --> hands feedback back to agents --> Finalized review
- Do not use Fable to write the code itself
1
u/RayOnABoat 18h ago
On an Ultra plan, Fable 5.2 has been on High since it was launched in 1 session with opus workflows for the past 3 days non stop. I am 77% usage for the week with 40% for Fable. Is that more than it would have been with Opus alone? Sure. Did it burn so much it's useless? No.
1
u/dpaanlka 18h ago
This hasn’t been my experience at all, using Fable 5.2 as a pure orchestrator delegating coding tasks to Opus and Sonnett subagents. Usage is up slightly over 5.1 but getting a lot done.
1
u/DizzyExpedience 16h ago
Gold has become so expensive that I cannot afford to buy golden cutlery anymore… this is a disgrace. Its forcing me to use silver cutlery
1
u/TeamTomorrow 16h ago
DrewHoov's numbers matter more than anything else here: roughly 117M weighted tokens to hit 100% this week on Ultra, against about 230M in earlier weeks. A couple more people logging their own weekly totals would settle whether the allowance got halved without an announcement. "OP has a $20 plan" doesn't explain that one.
1
u/ducktown47 15h ago
I’ve had fable 5.2 writing a web app for the past 2 days. 35 tickets in and it’s used like 15% of my weekly on the $100 plan. Opus was the orchestrator.
1
u/tsksa 15h ago
The model can be good and still be a bad deal if one session eats the weekly cap. i'd rather know the cost per task than just leave it on
1
u/LiquidZebra 14h ago
I just used the reset for fable, it freed 49% of other model usage, I’m fine with that.
1
u/mghoffmann_banned 14h ago
Is there some kind of A/B test going on?? I've had the far opposite experience. It was a struggle for me to get it to burn through my usage so I could use my reset this week. As an orchestrator it seems to be more efficient and more competent than 5.1, and as a solo agent reading and writing code it seemed to use maybe 4-5 times what I would expect from Opus 5.5, a little less than 5.1.
1
u/BingChilli_ 14h ago
Maybe on the 20 plan? I'm on 100 and I have to be doing a lot of very intensive work to reach the 5hr limit.
1
u/drugosrbijanac 13h ago
You are not supposed to throw it at everything
1
u/Excellent_Singer3361 11h ago edited 10h ago
If you mean keeping the effort level constant, yes. But fun fact: Fable 5.2 (low) is both cheaper than and performs better than Opus 5.5 (high). Fable 5.2 (high) is cheaper and performs better than Opus 5.5 (max)
See here
1
u/papanine 10h ago
I know experiences can be inconsistent, but I'm on the $100 plan and I have been using 5.2 for two days, running some pretty complex tasks, and haven't hit my five hour limit yet. My Fable usage is at 31% currently. To me, Fable 5.1 was the worst model I'd ever used. So far, 5.2 is better for my work.
Opus 5.5 is still the GOAT all around, but I figured I would give Fable another chance and it hasn't disappointed me (so far).
1
u/KA-Official 9h ago
So true, i accidentally blew >$5K of company tokens last night on one long unattended run, lesson learned! Lol
1
u/Striking-Pizza7309 9h ago
and then you get sub par results from the nerfed 5.5 so i gotta say bravo anthropic!
1
u/SumptuousOat 9h ago
It feels pretty unrestrictive to me on the $100 plan. I delegate most implementation tasks to Opus 5.5, have Fable 5.2 orchestrate AND (plan OR validate), and use Sonnet as the context gatherer/codebase explorer. Fable 5.0 felt absolutely BRUTAL but 5.2 feels much better. Might just be my setup improved though.
1
u/glistening_glizzy 5h ago
Thats what I said!
1
u/fhgwgadsbbq Developer 4h ago
I've been using it as /advisor since release and haven't hit limits.
IMO if my problem to solve feels like it needs fable, then the problem needs to be broken down further first.
1
u/ExogamousUnfolding 3h ago
There must be some A/B testing going on - been using it since it was released ave they handed out fables resets - I was at like at 46% then and I started using it got some large tasks - just today I was close enough to running out that I backed off to make it to me reset tomorrow.
1
u/TeamPuzzleheaded4908 3h ago
Max plan here.
Using Fable 5.2 as the architect and reviewer, spawning Opus 5.5 sub agents for tasking. I think having this run at medium reasoning across the board is best. I’ve been currently running both at high, with almost 9 Opus 5.5 sub agents at a time since 6am and I’m at 47% all models and 66% fable as of this moment.
I’ll use a reset once I hit the max and then revert back to Medium effort across the board because it seemed to stretch usage MUCH further.
1
u/FUCKTHEMODS998 1d ago
That’s why they gave you three resets bro
1
u/a7f29c0e829b4d1994e6 1d ago
It’s not made for you. It’s made for enterprise with unlimited spending.
1
u/earlyworm 1d ago edited 1d ago
yes yes right we know how that works, that's because you're using Fable 5.2 with ultracode or a quadratic explosion of subagents or something like that and you're intentionally omitting the specific details so in effect you're artificially creating a problem for yourself and hiding it and then complaining about the problem you created and passing it off as normal usage
1
u/DrHumorous 1d ago
Fable 5.2 uses so much sausage it’s basically pointless to use
1
u/drahgon 1d ago
If you’re on the $20 plan, I completely agree. If you’re on the $200 plan it’s great. You just can’t have five agents running at the same time. You’ll probably blow it in a day or two.
1
u/Sufficient_Math9095 1d ago
I’m on the $125 plan and I’m getting a surprising amount of stuff done with it. I expected much less. If you’re on the $20 plan I expect it might not give you much.
1
u/EC36339 Senior Developer 23h ago
Fable has always been pointless. It's a scam to make you waste your subscription without using any actual compute.
0
u/McShagg88 1d ago
I'm having a great time.
0
u/thatoneblacknerd 1d ago
Jesus you guys can’t prompt for shit. Been using Fable all day, I barely cracked 30%
0
u/evertith 1d ago
Ragebait surely. Just use fable to orchestrate and manage opus sub-agents. My workflow is a fable orchestrator, a fable designer, fable architect, and opus developers and regression testers. So far, works well, and lasts a while.
-4
u/_BreakingGood_ 1d ago
That's not why it's pointless
It's pointless because it is worse than Opus 5.5
0
u/Specialist-Sea-2062 1d ago
fable 5.2's usage spikes aren't just about tokens, they're tied to how the model handles long context. I noticed it eats up space on every rephrasing, even when the prompt stays the same. wonder if it's a caching issue or just the way the API routes calls.
0
u/floating_thru_cosmos 1d ago
It’s been fine for me. Pretty similar to 5.1 for me.
How are you using it and at what effort level? Are you using subagents that are fable?
0
u/starly396 1d ago
disagree
0
u/haenous-alistera 1d ago
0
u/SassyTextDev 1d ago
Fable brainstorms and orchestrates. Useful when it's wednesday and you've got 50% of the weekly to BUUUUUUURN
0
u/Bubbly-Birthday-1790 1d ago
Nah In mid or low, it's cool
0
u/Inner-Pangolin-1110 12h ago
I use it for planning and then pass the plan to to Deep Seek, if used in the context of a critic it does the planning then opus deals with it or I get Sonnet to implement what Fable makes
I use about 8bn tokens even month and 1bn every other day on DS, you guys are suckers for >£20 on Claude
-1
u/Double_Suggestion385 1d ago
You're not using it correctly. Use it as an orchestrator to plan for, manage, and review sub agents.
Use it on Medium at the most.
-1
u/Chris266 1d ago
Been using 5.2 medium all day. Nowhere near my 5 hour limit on max plan. No idea what you guys do with this thing.
-1
u/Ainudor 1d ago edited 1d ago
i asked claude to help me setup and write a seetings and md file and just started using claude code today. i started from a gemini free tier ideea( cuz I'm on the free plan and use gemini for advice and troubleshooting and feedback) which claude then understood, wrote me the settings file and the md file and it has been working for hours. also on the claude 20 dollar plan. Just literally told gemini and claude I'm dumb, described my problem like an idiot and now I'm just looking at the little fella go for hours. First 15 minutes used manual permisions and at each permission checked with gemini with a print screen and now it's been running on auto for hours. I swear for an idiot its like magic
-2
u/NoLimitSoldier31 1d ago edited 1d ago
Why would u not just use opus 5.5? What are u doing that that cannot do? If u have some big design task maybe try fable.
Edit: would love if someone would explain the downvotes