Claude Fable 5.1 vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Anthropic · US  |  NVIDIA · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick Claude Fable 5.1 for terminal-bench-science agentic research (52.6%, more than double fable 5's 24.7%) or cursorbench 3.2 agentic coding (73.4%). Pick NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b) or 1m-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% ruler @ 1m). Choose NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Claude Fable 5.1 if you want a managed API.

Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super (NVIDIA) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Claude Fable 5.1 is anthropic's September 1, 2026 update to its Fable line for coding and knowledge work, keeping the 1M-token context of Fable 5 while cutting cache-read costs and roughly doubling agentic-research benchmark scores. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is nVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. They diverge most on price and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude Fable 5.1NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super
ProviderAnthropic (US) NVIDIA (US)
ReleasedSeptember 1, 2026 March 11, 2026
Context window1M tokens (~1,500 pages) 1M (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)$10/$50 per 1M tokens Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?No — API only Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, image text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published 60.47%
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

Terminal-Bench-Science agentic research (52.6%, more than double Fable 5's 24.7%)

Claude Fable 5.1

Anthropic's September 1, 2026 update to its Fable line for coding and knowledge work, keeping the 1M-token context of Fable 5 while cutting cache-read costs and roughly doubling agentic-research benchmark scores — and it is the newer of the two.

CursorBench 3.2 agentic coding (73.4%)

Claude Fable 5.1

Claude Fable 5.1 lists cursorBench 3.2 agentic coding (73.4%) among its strengths; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super does not.

Cache-read pricing cut to a quarter of other Claude models

Claude Fable 5.1

Claude Fable 5.1 lists cache-read pricing cut to a quarter of other Claude models among its strengths; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super does not.

High-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context — and its weights are open while Claude Fable 5.1 is API-only.

1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super lists 1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M) among its strengths; Claude Fable 5.1 does not.

Strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super lists strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025) among its strengths; Claude Fable 5.1 does not.

Lowest cost at scale

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of Claude Fable 5.1's $10/$50 per 1M tokens.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts Claude Fable 5.1, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Claude Fable 5.1 is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is terminal-bench-science agentic research (52.6%, more than double fable 5's 24.7%)

Claude Fable 5.1

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

That is its strongest area.

Claude Fable 5.1: where it fits

Anthropic's September 1, 2026 update to its Fable line for coding and knowledge work, keeping the 1M-token context of Fable 5 while cutting cache-read costs and roughly doubling agentic-research benchmark scores. Released September 1, 2026 by Anthropic, it is built for terminal-Bench-Science agentic research (52.6%, more than double Fable 5's 24.7%), cursorBench 3.2 agentic coding (73.4%), cache-read pricing cut to a quarter of other Claude models, and long, multistep, document-heavy professional work with 1M-token context.

Its trade-offs are real: anthropic has not published an official SWE-bench Verified score for this model, restricted Mythos 5.1 variant outscores it on some benchmarks due to lighter safeguards (Terminal-Bench 4.0: 60.9% vs 55.8%), and closed weights, no self-hosting option. At $10 in / $50 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium price band.

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super: where it fits

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. Released March 11, 2026 by NVIDIA, it is built for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B), 1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M), strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025), and fully open weights, datasets, and recipes for self-hosting.

Its trade-offs: text-only; no image, audio, or video input, and requires roughly 8x H100-80GB GPUs to self-host at BF16. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Claude Fable 5.1 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both Claude Fable 5.1 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Fable 5.1 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for Claude Fable 5.1, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Claude Fable 5.1 leans toward terminal-bench-science agentic research (52.6%, more than double fable 5's 24.7%) while NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super leans toward high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, Claude Fable 5.1 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Claude Fable 5.1 is API-metered at $10/$50 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both advertise 1M tokens (~1,500 pages). Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.

Can I use both Claude Fable 5.1 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Claude Fable 5.1, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, Claude Fable 5.1 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

Claude Fable 5.1 — released September 1, 2026, about 6 months after NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.