Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Inkling Small
Claude Haiku 4.5 leads Inkling Small on coding, 35.6 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 4.2x less per output token ($1.20 vs $5.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 61 benchmarks have a result for both.
Claude Haiku 4.5 or Inkling Small: which to pick
Pick Claude Haiku 4.5 for coding: it scores 35.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small.
Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 4.2x cheaper ($1.20 vs $5.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $0.56).
- Shared results
- 61
- Claude Haiku 4.5 only
- 34
- Inkling Small only
- 23
- 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 Haiku 4.5
Claude Haiku 4.5 scores 35.6 against 27.3.
4 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 25.7 against 16.9.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 23.5 against 8.0.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 83.6% against 72.2%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only Claude Haiku 4.5 has a AIME result, 82.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 85.6% against 78.7%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Haiku 4.5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1122.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a Vals Index result, 27.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling Small
Inkling Small takes 524K tokens against 200K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling Small
Claude Haiku 4.5 $0.0035, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling Small
Claude Haiku 4.5 $0.56, Inkling Small $0.16.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Haiku 4.5 35.6 from 4 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 14.7 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LiveCodeBench (Vals AI): Claude Haiku 4.5 41.2% against Inkling Small 85.9%, 44.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Haiku 4.5 $5.00 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 4.2x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Haiku 4.5 takes 200K 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 Haiku 4.5 | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 11 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 5 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 5 | ||
| Math | 0 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 11 | ||
| General | 6 | 15 | ||
| All shared boards | 9 | 52 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index111
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 66.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 64.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LiveBench coding | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1330 | 1409 | Inkling Small |
| AA Coding Index | 43.9 | 52.9 | Inkling Small |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 41.2% | 85.9% | Inkling Small |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 66.6% | 82.2% | Inkling Small |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 11.4% | 19.1% | Inkling Small |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 7.5% | 13.7% | Inkling Small |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.5% | Inkling Small |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 43.8% | 55.1% | Inkling Small |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 33.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 49.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 35.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| WeirdML | 45.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1454 | 1450 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1439 | 1447 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1326 | 1399 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1318 | 1398 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1410 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 16.9 | 25.7 | Inkling Small |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 142.2 | 150.3 | Inkling Small |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 8.0 | 23.5 | Inkling Small |
| LiveBench research | 42.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 40.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 11.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 31.0% | 41.3% | Inkling Small |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 5.9% | 15.4% | Inkling Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 10.6% | 25.5% | Inkling Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 22.7% | 31.8% | Inkling Small |
| BALROG | 31.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 45.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $459 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | 68.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index25
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 72.2% | 83.6% | Inkling Small |
| LiveBench reasoning | 61.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 46.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 71.2% | 88.5% | Inkling Small |
| ARC-AGI | 47.7% | 84.0% | Inkling Small |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.0% | 40.1% | Inkling Small |
| Chess puzzles | 8.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1421 | 1423 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1443 | 1441 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1435 | 1429 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1251 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1257 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 82.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 92.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 66.7% | 90.0% | Inkling Small |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 17.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MATH level 5 | 96.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1398 | 1459 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1430 | 1441 | Inkling Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index011
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 78.7% | 85.6% | Inkling Small |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 81.2% | 83.0% | Inkling Small |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 56.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.6% | 69.6% | Inkling Small |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 67.5% | 75.5% | Inkling Small |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 62.2% | 62.3% | Inkling Small |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 79.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 32.7% | 37.9% | Inkling Small |
| SimpleQA Verified | 13.2% | 19.1% | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: science | 1406 | 1428 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1394 | 1413 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1400 | 1415 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1400 | 1413 | Inkling Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1122 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1097 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1096 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1124 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1071 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1114 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1025 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1140 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LiveBench design | 59.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index615
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 27.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 59.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 54.3% | 59.4% | Inkling Small |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 31.8% | 32.7% | Inkling Small |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 85.2% | 84.1% | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 42.9% | 50.0% | Inkling Small |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 75.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| DTBench | 73.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LMCA | 30.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| ExploitBench | 13.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1397 | 1413 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1414 | 1399 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1371 | 1334 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1237 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1414 | 1421 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1377 | 1401 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1418 | 1464 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: German | 1374 | 1408 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1338 | 1401 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1346 | 1367 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: French | 1411 | 1435 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1421 | 1422 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1381 | 1394 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1343 | 1428 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1409 | 1416 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1427 | 1402 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1386 | 1357 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1369 | 1352 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1292 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1207 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1205 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Document | 1420 | Not measured | Only Claude Haiku 4.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | 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 Haiku 4.5 | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | October 15, 2025 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 200K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.00 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $5.00 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 35.6 | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.56 | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Haiku 4.5 better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick Claude Haiku 4.5 for coding: it scores 35.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 4.2x cheaper ($1.20 vs $5.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $0.56).
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Inkling Small?
Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00 per million input tokens and $5.00 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $0.56 and Inkling Small $0.16.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Inkling Small?
Inkling Small, with 524K tokens against 200K.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
61 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Haiku 4.5'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.