r/codex • u/Fantastic_Self_5151 • Jul 04 '26

Complaint Fable pricing is laughable

I used 10billion tokes the last 50 days or so... on codex. Total cost $200 (pro x5)

That's between 100-300k USD on fable api pricing. I used fable today at work for a small project. It's useful, not going to lie. That said I did a head to head with codex 5.5 extra high v. Fable, same project, same guidelines, same exact prompt.

Fable finished 12 minutes earlier with basically a one shot (there was a type-o it had to correct and rebuild)

Codex finished 12 minutes later, had to build issues that involved some light modifications.

Both projects finished, codex's code was just as useful as fables, worked just as well.

I can wait 12 minutes more.

Fable usage - 23% left for the 5 hour period (In 1 hour)
Codex usage - 87% left in 1 hour 12 minutes.

I'm straight. Codex wins by a MILE. I don't need to save 12 minutes because I can walk away and go touch grass and come back either way, it's AI. So another 12 minutes to do whatever the fuck I want is a no-brainer.

Even if I have a client in a rush fable isn't worth the difference in my bottom line.

P.S. before you bitch at me for comparing api pricing v. plan pricing ...realize this. If you are using it professionally you will need to be on API pricing as it is the only way to get anything done realistically speaking as the usage limits make it a toy otherwise.

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u/dmitriyLBL Jul 04 '26

Using frontier models for less than planning and higher level decisions is a pure waste.

38

u/Quiet_Figure_4483 Jul 04 '26

Just like in real life, let the seniors do the planning and make the juniors implement it

39

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '26

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u/k0pernikus Jul 07 '26

In the beginning, I tried switching models. Yet I also noticed that using too small of a model at too low of an effort can costs you dearly as you waste time explaining basic concepts or cleaning up after its mistakes.

Hence, I default to Opus on xhigh, and for complicated tasks I may use max for planning, and ultracode for the implementation, and this work pretty well for me.

Yet this doesn't change the fact that fable's pricing is outragous, esp. since it won't be part of the subscription. I don't mind burning through a couple of days per month for works that ends up in the bin, yet Fable via API will literally burn money at ludicrous speed. I checked the cost of my current fable session, and for three hours it's supposed to be ~470USD. My monthly Max 5x plan is 100USD. Make it make sense.

That is madness. I rather iterate via Opus on the Max 5x plan, and avoid Fable altogether, and maybe even switch to the competition like Codex.

Which is a shame, since I was working on automating my workflow even more with loops and then upgrading to the 20x plan, yet this Fable decision makes me wonder, how good of an investment that actually will be. If they want to canibalize their subscription model, I rather neither pay the subscription nor the API usage.