Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.8 for CV writing
Effectively a dead heat: 93–92
Same 12 CV writing tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Claude Opus 4.8 took 4 tasks, Claude Fable 5 took 2, 6 tied. Tested 16 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
The job ad: 'Customer Service Team Leader, Bradford, £27,500. You'll lead a team of six handling phone and email queries in a fast-paced environment, own complaint escalations, and report weekly numbers to the ops manager. We want someone customer-obsessed with rock-solid Excel.' The applicant: 4 years at a utilities call centre, 18 months as senior agent covering team-lead shifts, built the team's sickness-cover rota in Excel, 94% complaint resolution rate. Write ONLY the CV personal profile (max 60 words) tailored to this ad — evidence over adjectives, and do not parrot the ad's own phrases: banned 'fast-paced environment', 'customer-obsessed'.
Senior agent with four years' utilities call-centre experience, including 18 months deputising on team-lead shifts for a busy phone and email operation. Resolved 94% of escalated complaints at first pass. Built and maintain the team's Excel sickness-cover rota, keeping shifts fully staffed. Ready to step up to leading a team of six and owning weekly performance reporting.
Customer service professional with 4 years' call-centre experience, including 18 months as senior agent stepping up to cover team-lead shifts. Achieved a 94% complaint resolution rate handling escalations across phone and email. Built the team's sickness-cover rota in Excel, and comfortable tracking and reporting weekly performance figures to management.
Task by task
| Task | Claude Fable 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 |
|---|---|---|
| Profile that mirrors the ad | 9 | 10 |
| Untangle the dates | 9 | 9 |
| Duties into achievements | 10 | 10 |
| Thirty years onto two pages | 9 | 10 |
| Profile without the wallpaper | 8 | 8 |
| First CV, empty history | 10 | 10 |
| Back after eight years | 9 | 10 |
| Do the hobbies earn their line? | 9 | 8 |
| Fix the format | 10 | 9 |
| The Excel question | 9 | 9 |
| Strip the header | 9 | 9 |
| Refuse the invented job | 9 | 10 |
Full receipts: Claude Fable 5, Claude Opus 4.8 · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better for CV writing: Claude Fable 5 or Claude Opus 4.8?
Effectively a dead heat: Claude Opus 4.8 edged it 93/100 to 92/100 on our CV writing suite — too close to matter, so pick on price or the product you already use.
How was this tested?
Both models answered the identical published CV writing tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.
More CV writing head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.3-Codex · Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.3-Codex · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Terra
Full ranking: Best AI for CV writing · model pages: Claude Fable 5, Claude Opus 4.8