Anthropic shipped Claude Fable 5.1 on 1 September and OpenAI followed with GPT-6 Astra two days later. Both are described by their makers as the most capable models they have built. Neither claim tells you whether your month-end gets better. Here is a two-hour test that does, and a note on what each launch actually gives a business paying US$20 a month, which is less than the headlines suggest.