Claude Fable 5.2 vs Inkling Small
Claude Fable 5.2 leads Inkling Small on coding, 87.8 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 33.3x less per output token ($1.20 vs $40.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 31 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 31 shared
Claude Fable 5.2 or Inkling Small: which to pick
Pick Claude Fable 5.2 for coding: it scores 87.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small.
Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 33.3x cheaper ($1.20 vs $40.00 per million).
Model AClaude Fable 5.2Anthropic87.8/1004 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved taskModel BInkling SmallThinking Machines27.3/1004 independent benchmarks$0.16 per solved task
- Shared results
- 31
- Claude Fable 5.2 only
- 37
- Inkling Small only
- 62
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Claude Fable 5.2
Claude Fable 5.2 scores 87.8 against 27.3.
4 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Fable 5.2
Claude Fable 5.2 leads, 64.6 against 12.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a AA Agentic Index result, 23.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling Small has a GPQA Diamond result, 83.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling Small has a MMLU Pro result, 85.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Fable 5.2 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1351.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Claude Fable 5.2
Claude Fable 5.2 leads, 71.3% against 27.6%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Claude Fable 5.2
Claude Fable 5.2 takes 1M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling Small
Claude Fable 5.2 $0.028, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Inkling Small has the number, $0.16.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Fable 5.2 87.8 from 4 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Math, 58.9 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- ProofBench: Claude Fable 5.2 100.0% against Inkling Small 6.0%, 94.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Fable 5.2 $40.00 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 33.3x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Fable 5.2 takes 1M tokens, Inkling Small 524K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Claude Fable 5.2 | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 10 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 3 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 7 | 0 | ||
| Math | 4 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 3 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 31 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index100
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 79.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1838 | 1408 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 52.9 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 82.2% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 65.2% | 0.0% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 93.8% | 19.1% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 13.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 19.0% | 0.5% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 62.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 33.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SciCode | 67.7% | 49.7% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 61.6% | 1.0% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 49.1% | 4.8% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| FrontierSWE | 69.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2509.8 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1451 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1915 | 1397 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1738 | 1396 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1410 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| GameBench 2 | 99.1 | 33.1 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | Not measured | 0.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | 60.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 64.6 | 12.9 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 173.4 | 150.8 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 23.5 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1402 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1325 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1434 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LiveBench research | 94.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 86.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 82.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 32.1% | 15.4% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 46.1% | 25.5% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 5.0% | 2.9% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 83.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 55.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Vals Science Index | 63.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 80.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Remote Labor Index | 41.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| SpireClimb | 15.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 79.2% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Toolathlon-Verified | Not measured | 54.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 88.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 74.3% | 33.3% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 80.2% | 12.1% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 76.5% | 18.5% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 93.9% | 88.5% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | 84.0% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 93.8% | 40.1% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| SimpleBench | 94.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 79.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 90.0% | 6.0% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| EBR-bench | 90.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1425 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1440 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1253 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1252 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 72.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| GoBench | 2566 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 99.7% | 90.0% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 95.1% | 46.3% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 100.0% | 17.1% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| ProofBench | 100.0% | 6.0% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1459 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1437 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MathArena | 82.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 37.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| AA-Omniscience | 66.8 | -9.5 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 94.0% | 19.1% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1414 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| PRBench Finance | 47.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| PRBench Legal | 49.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1351 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1371 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1396 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1517 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1373 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LiveBench design | 85.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 71.3% | 27.6% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| LiveBench data analysis | 81.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 84.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 83.3% | 75.7% | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| GDPval-AA | 1831 | 1133 | Claude Fable 5.2 |
| DTBench | 99.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LMCA | 70.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 90.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5.2 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1414 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1402 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1337 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1236 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1421 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1402 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1462 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1397 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1384 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1438 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1431 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1397 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1427 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1417 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1359 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1353 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1291 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1242 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1199 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1197 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5.2 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Claude Fable 5.2$0.028Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.0010Fits in one request
Inkling Small costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Claude Fable 5.2$0.520Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.026Fits in one request
Inkling Small costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Claude Fable 5.2$2.00Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.102Fits in one request
Inkling Small costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Anthropic Claude Fable 5.2 | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | November 9, 2026 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $8.00 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $40.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 87.8 | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Fable 5.2 better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick Claude Fable 5.2 for coding: it scores 87.8 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 33.3x cheaper ($1.20 vs $40.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Claude Fable 5.2 or Inkling Small?
Claude Fable 5.2 costs $8.00 per million input tokens and $40.00 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling Small only.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Fable 5.2 or Inkling Small?
Claude Fable 5.2, with 1M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Fable 5.2 vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
31 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Claude Fable 5.2's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.