Do We Actually Need Fable 5? A Reality Check on Frontier AI

Now that Fable 5 is open to the public again, I decided to jump back in and start tinkering.

So, what are my conclusions after spending hard-earned cash on tokens?

Are Fable 5's responses good? Yes, of course they are.

Is it really expensive? Yes—in fact, I would argue that it is too expensive.

Granted, that is a complex claim to make, so let me break down how I am looking at it.

To figure out if the cost is justified, the real question you have to ask is: What is your end goal?

Are you building a full front-to-backend web or mobile app?

Are you tackling a complete website redesign?

Or do you just need it to scour your entire codebase to track down a tricky security hole or a difficult bug?

Depending on your answer, that "too expensive" label can definitely shift. I would argue that it is only truly worth spending the extra money on a frontier model if you are dealing with a massively difficult bug or a major architectural redesign. And honestly, even then, it is still up for debate.

The reality is that there are so many cheaper, highly capable models available right now that paying a premium for the absolute cutting-edge is often unnecessary.

I liken it to the evolution of smartphones. Smartphone cameras used to get noticeably better with each new release. But a few years ago, they hit a critical mass. The advancements in hardware and software between the latest flagship phone and the previous version became virtually undetectable to the human eye. The cheaper, slightly older model simply became "good enough" for almost every picture you would ever need to take.

I believe we have already reached that exact point with LLMs.

In my day job this week, I saw the release of GPT-5.6. I tested it out, and while it was undeniably good, I quickly found myself returning to GPT-5.5. The responses from 5.5 were more than good enough for the size of the codebase and the specific tasks I was working on. Plus, it used far fewer tokens, which saved my daily quota.

So in short: sure, give the frontier models a try (with Fable 5 being the current star of the show). But use them with caution and strategy. More often than not, there is another LLM out there that will do exactly what you need for a fraction of the cost.

What are your thoughts on this? I would be interested to hear how you balance cost and capability in your own workflows.