Everything about Fugu Max
Fugu Max in numbers: price per token, context window, independent benchmark scores and comparable models, based on public data checked on October 22, 2026.
Data as of October 22, 2026
Key figures
| Developer | Sakana AI |
|---|---|
| Released | September 11, 2026 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (≈ 1,500 pages) |
| Maximum output | 128,000 tokens |
| Input price | $2 per million tokens (median of 9 providers) |
| Output price | $6 per million tokens |
| Open weights | No |
| Reasoning mode | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes |
| Structured output (JSON) | Yes |
| Accepted inputs | text, image, PDF |
| Providers offering it | 9 |
Overview
Released on September 11, 2026, Fugu Max is one of the 4 Sakana AI models tracked on this site. Its weights are not published, so it only runs remotely, through the Sakana AI API or partner hosts (9 listed on models.dev). It has a reasoning mode: it can "think" before answering, which helps with multi-step problems but uses more tokens, and therefore more money. It is a very recent release.
We file it under mid-range models (34 models in this category on the site).
What do independent benchmarks say?
As of October 22, 2026, Epoch AI publishes no score for Fugu Max on our basket's benchmarks. To place it, rely on its specifications and price, then test it on your own cases.
How much does Fugu Max cost?
Fugu Max costs $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens (median of 9 providers, checked on October 22, 2026).
In practice, an agent task that reads 20,000 tokens and writes 2,000 costs about $0.052, or $52 for 1,000 such tasks.
That is 1.4 times the median output price of mid-range models ($4.38).
To estimate your own budget, use the agent cost calculator.
What it can do
Its context window reaches 1,000,000 tokens, roughly 1,500 pages of text at 500 words per page: enough to load a whole book or a mid-sized codebase. A single answer can run to 128,000 tokens.
It accepts as input: text, image and PDF.
It can call tools (functions, APIs) and return structured JSON output, which makes it a possible foundation for an AI agent.
What is it good for?
Given its category, Fugu Max is mainly aimed at a balance between quality and cost, for everyday uses that do not justify a frontier model.
Its very large context window makes it worth considering for analysing large sets of documents in a single request.
Before adopting it, test it on your own examples: benchmarks measure standard tasks, not your job.
What could replace it?
In the same category, the models closest to Fugu Max are:
- Grok 4.7 (xAI, index 79.9)
- Grok 4.5 (xAI, index 79.1)
- Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral AI, $7.5 per million output tokens)
- GPT-5.4 mini (OpenAI, index 68.4)
Similar models
- Grok 4.7 · xAI · index 79.9
- Grok 4.5 · xAI · index 79.1
- Mistral Medium 3.5 · Mistral AI
- GPT-5.4 mini · OpenAI · index 68.4
Other Sakana AI models
- Fugu Ultra v2 · September 11, 2026
- Sakana Namazu · August 3, 2026
- Fugu Ultra · June 15, 2026
Frequently asked questions
How much does Fugu Max cost?
As of October 22, 2026, Fugu Max costs $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens (median of 9 providers). A task that reads 20,000 tokens and writes 2,000 costs about $0.052.
What is the context window of Fugu Max?
1,000,000 tokens, roughly 1,500 pages of text. An answer can reach 128,000 tokens.
Is Fugu Max open source?
No. It is a closed Sakana AI model, available only through an API.
When was Fugu Max released?
Fugu Max was released on September 11, 2026, according to models.dev.
Can you build an agent with Fugu Max?
Yes: it can call tools and return structured JSON, the two basic building blocks of an agent.
Data sources
- Models.dev — Model data: models.dev (open-source project)
- OpenRouter — Market prices cross-checked with OpenRouter
Data as of October 22, 2026
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