Claude Fable 5 vs Inkling Small
Claude Fable 5 leads Inkling Small on coding, 79.3 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 41.7x less per output token ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 79 benchmarks have a result for both.
Claude Fable 5 or Inkling Small: which to pick
Pick Claude Fable 5 for coding: it scores 79.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small.
Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 41.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $2.16).
- Shared results
- 79
- Claude Fable 5 only
- 48
- Inkling Small only
- 5
- 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
Claude Fable 5 scores 79.3 against 27.3.
6 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Fable 5
Claude Fable 5 leads, 49.6 against 25.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Claude Fable 5
Claude Fable 5 leads, 50.7 against 23.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Claude Fable 5
Claude Fable 5 leads, 93.2% against 83.6%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Claude Fable 5
Claude Fable 5 leads, 91.5% against 85.6%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Fable 5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1295.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a Vals Index result, 27.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Claude Fable 5
Claude Fable 5 takes 1M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling Small
Claude Fable 5 $0.035, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling Small
Claude Fable 5 $2.16, Inkling Small $0.16.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Fable 5 79.3 from 6 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Math, 39.1 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- ProofBench: Claude Fable 5 95.0% against Inkling Small 6.0%, 89.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Fable 5 $50.00 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 41.7x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Fable 5 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 | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 15 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 5 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 11 | 1 | ||
| Math | 6 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 11 | 0 | ||
| General | 28 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 78 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index150
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 98.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1624 | 1409 | Claude Fable 5 |
| AA Coding Index | 76.5 | 52.9 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 89.8% | 85.9% | Claude Fable 5 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 95.0% | 82.2% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 41.4% | 0.0% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 90.3% | 19.1% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 55.1% | 13.7% | Claude Fable 5 |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 2.0% | 0.5% | Claude Fable 5 |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 80.5% | 55.1% | Claude Fable 5 |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 33.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SciCode | 61.0% | 49.7% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 62.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| FrontierCode | 53.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| FrontierSWE | 47.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| GSO-Bench | 78.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| WeirdML | 91.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| MirrorCode | 63.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2041.3 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1518 | 1450 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1513 | 1447 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1631 | 1399 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1651 | 1398 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1623 | 1410 | Claude Fable 5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 49.6 | 25.7 | Claude Fable 5 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 163.4 | 150.3 | Claude Fable 5 |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 50.7 | 23.5 | Claude Fable 5 |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1261 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1280 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1264 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1284 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1292 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1285 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1227 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1270 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LiveBench research | 86.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 92.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 53.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 56.3% | 41.3% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 38.3% | 15.4% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 49.5% | 25.5% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 73.7% | 31.8% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 15.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 98.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 63.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Remote Labor Index | 16.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| PostTrainBench | 41.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $5,680 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LMArena Search | 1229 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index111
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 93.2% | 83.6% | Claude Fable 5 |
| LiveBench reasoning | 89.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 89.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.6% | 89.5% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 55.5% | 33.3% | Claude Fable 5 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 85.9% | 88.5% | Inkling Small |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | 84.0% | Claude Fable 5 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 89.2% | 40.1% | Claude Fable 5 |
| SimpleBench | 81.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 47.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 52.0% | 6.0% | Claude Fable 5 |
| EBR-bench | 39.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1507 | 1423 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1534 | 1441 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1509 | 1429 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1357 | 1251 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1361 | 1257 | Claude Fable 5 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 91.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | 90.0% | Claude Fable 5 |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 87.0% | 46.3% | Claude Fable 5 |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 90.2% | 17.1% | Claude Fable 5 |
| ProofBench | 95.0% | 6.0% | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: math | 1516 | 1459 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1515 | 1441 | Claude Fable 5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 91.5% | 85.6% | Claude Fable 5 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 88.6% | 83.0% | Claude Fable 5 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 71.8% | 69.6% | Claude Fable 5 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 76.9% | 75.5% | Claude Fable 5 |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.9% | 62.3% | Claude Fable 5 |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 56.1% | 37.9% | Claude Fable 5 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 70.7% | 19.1% | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: science | 1506 | 1428 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1480 | 1413 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1498 | 1415 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1480 | 1413 | Claude Fable 5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1295 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1316 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1335 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1304 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1318 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1310 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1302 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1329 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LiveBench design | 84.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index280
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 27.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 80.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 70.4% | 59.4% | Claude Fable 5 |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.9% | 32.7% | Claude Fable 5 |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 88.5% | 84.1% | Claude Fable 5 |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 74.2% | 50.0% | Claude Fable 5 |
| IFBench | 63.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.3% | 75.7% | Claude Fable 5 |
| DTBench | 98.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LMCA | 61.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 95.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 35.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1491 | 1413 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1502 | 1399 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1494 | 1334 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision | 1325 | 1237 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1498 | 1421 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1482 | 1401 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1543 | 1464 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1486 | 1408 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1504 | 1401 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1487 | 1367 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1505 | 1435 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1498 | 1422 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1503 | 1394 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1494 | 1428 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1504 | 1416 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1510 | 1402 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1501 | 1357 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1482 | 1352 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1323 | 1243 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1373 | 1292 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1337 | 1243 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1341 | 1207 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1338 | 1205 | Claude Fable 5 |
| LMArena Document | 1496 | Not measured | Only Claude Fable 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Fable 5 | 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
Inkling Small costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Inkling Small costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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 | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | June 9, 2026 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $10.00 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $50.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 79.3 | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $2.16 | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Fable 5 better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick Claude Fable 5 for coding: it scores 79.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 41.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $50.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $2.16).
Which is cheaper, Claude Fable 5 or Inkling Small?
Claude Fable 5 costs $10.00 per million input tokens and $50.00 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Fable 5 costs $2.16 and Inkling Small $0.16.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Fable 5 or Inkling Small?
Claude Fable 5, with 1M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Fable 5 vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
79 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Fable 5's coding index rests on 6 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.