AI roundup
Claude Fable 5.1: Max effort wins
Wed 02 September 2026
5 reasoning levels; max produced the most detailed SVG pelican
| Proof | In Simon Willison’s SVG test, max used 65,927 output tokens including reasoning and took 13 minutes 54 seconds. |
| Best for | Coding, knowledge work, and long-running problem-solving tasks |
| Available via | Anthropic API |
| Try it | Ask for an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle at 'max' reasoning effort |
Key takeaways
- Why it matters: In this single SVG test, higher reasoning effort produced more detail but used more tokens and took longer.
- Before you switch: For the same SVG prompt, low and medium showed no reasoning text and finished in about 23 seconds; results may differ on other tasks.
Source: Simon Willison