Ternary Bonsai 2 9B vs Claude Fable 5.1
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B took 7 min 4 s and $0.004 at list price, Claude Fable 5.1 took 16 min 4 s and $3.97 at list price. Claude Fable 5.1 took 2.3× as long and cost 884× as much.
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B
PrismML · $0.13/M out
Claude Fable 5.1
Anthropic · $50.00/M out · 1,630 HN pts
Only Claude Fable 5.1 has CLI runs here (Claude Code).
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Welcome to Patchbay. A dedicated three-person studio in Rotterdam, where analog warmth meets modern precision. Our workshop is a sanctuary for vintage synthesizers, circuit boards, and forgotten sounds. We operate on the belief that vintage gear deserves respect and careful handling. Every unit we restore is given a new life, preserving its unique character while ensuring it functions reliably. We work meticulously on instruments that shaped electronic music history. This isn't just repair; it is resurrection. Our artisans take the time to solder every connection and clean every capacitor, understanding that imperfections hold stories worth keeping. We aim to keep the legacy of analog synthesis alive. Whether you need a fix or advice on your collection's condition, we support the analog revival. Trust in our expertise to get your dreams humming again. In a digital world, we choose to sound the truth. We believe in the tangible sound of history.
Patchbay is three people and one workshop in Rotterdam, and we spend our days bringing old synthesizers back to life. Most of what arrives at our bench is somewhere between thirty and fifty years old: a Juno with a dead voice chip, a Minimoog that drifts out of tune the moment the room warms up, a Polysix whose battery has quietly eaten its own circuit board. We know these instruments inside and out because we have had hundreds of them open on the table.
We started Patchbay because we kept meeting musicians who had been told their synth was not worth fixing. We disagree. These machines were built to be serviced, and with the right parts, enough patience, and a good set of schematics, almost any of them can be made to play again. When we hand an instrument back, we want it to sound the way it did the day it left the factory, or better.
Specs and numbers
| Ternary Bonsai 2 9B | Claude Fable 5.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | PrismML | Anthropic |
| Made in | US | US |
| Released | 16 Oct 2026 | 1 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.08 | $10.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.13 | $50.00 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Weights | open | closed |
| Hacker News points | — | 1,630 |
| Time for the six prompts | 7 min 4 s | 16 min 4 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.004 | $3.97 |
Ternary Bonsai 2 9B was cheaper: $3.97 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Ternary Bonsai 2 9B was faster: 9 min 1 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games stopped painting.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Claude Fable 5.1's rebuild matched the screenshot at 78%; Ternary Bonsai 2 9B was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Claude Fable 5.1's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Ternary Bonsai 2 9B was not in it.





