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Claude Opus 4.5 vs Inkling Small

Claude Opus 4.5 leads Inkling Small on coding, 44.0 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 20.8x less per output token ($1.20 vs $25.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 57 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Claude Opus 4.5 Replace Inkling Small
Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic
Coding
44.0
Overall
55.7
Output $/M
$25.00
44
T Inkling SmallThinking Machines
Coding
27.3
Overall
43.6
Output $/M
$1.20
13
vs boards won of 57 shared

Claude Opus 4.5 or Inkling Small: which to pick

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 for coding: it scores 44.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 3 benchmarks against 4.

Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 20.8x cheaper ($1.20 vs $25.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $1.37).

Model AClaude Opus 4.5Anthropic44.0/1003 independent benchmarks$1.37 per solved taskModel BInkling SmallThinking Machines27.3/1004 independent benchmarks$0.16 per solved task
Shared results
57
Claude Opus 4.5 only
51
Inkling Small only
27
Like-for-like categories
6 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.

At a glance

Coding index
Claude Opus 4.5 44.0 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
Widest category
Math, 10.5 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
ProofBench: Claude Opus 4.5 36.0% against Inkling Small 6.0%, 30.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Opus 4.5 $25.00 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 20.8x apart.
Context window
Claude Opus 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryClaude Opus 4.5BarsInkling SmallTies
Coding62
Intelligence11
Reasoning55
Math33
Knowledge92
General200
All shared boards4413
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index62
Coding benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
SWE-bench Verified79.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SWE-bench (full test set)52.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SWE-bench Multilingual70.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena WebDev14941409Claude Opus 4.5
AA Coding IndexNot measured52.9Only Inkling Small measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)83.7%85.9%Inkling Small
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)76.4%82.2%Inkling Small
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Inkling Small measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)20.6%19.1%Claude Opus 4.5
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured13.7%Only Inkling Small measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.5%Only Inkling Small measured
IOI (Vals AI)Not measured9.3%Only Inkling Small measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured55.1%Only Inkling Small measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)Not measured33.6%Only Inkling Small measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured64.1%Only Inkling Small measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)87.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SciCodeNot measured49.7%Only Inkling Small measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)47.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Terminal-Bench63.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
GSO-Bench26.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
WeirdML63.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Cybench82.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: coding15031450Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: software and IT14831447Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena WebDev: React14781399Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena WebDev: HTML15101398Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena WebDev: from an imageNot measured1410Only Inkling Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
AA Intelligence Index29.125.7Claude Opus 4.5
Epoch Capabilities Index150.1150.3Inkling Small
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index19 boards, none shared
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
AA Agentic IndexNot measured23.5Only Inkling Small measured
Design Arena: agents building web apps1159Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1156Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1189Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1176Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured41.3%Only Inkling Small measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)Not measured15.4%Only Inkling Small measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured25.5%Only Inkling Small measured
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured2.9%Only Inkling Small measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured31.8%Only Inkling Small measured
τ²-Bench Telecom89.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
METR time horizons75.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Remote Labor Index3.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
GDPval45.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
BALROG43.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
DeepResearch Bench54.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
OSWorld66.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Vending-Bench 2$4,967Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL)77.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index55
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
GPQA Diamond85.9%83.6%Claude Opus 4.5
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)86.6%89.5%Inkling Small
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)30.1%33.3%Inkling Small
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)86.0%88.5%Inkling Small
ARC-AGI80.0%84.0%Inkling Small
ARC-AGI-237.6%40.1%Inkling Small
SimpleBench62.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Chess puzzles14.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Mystery game puzzles22.0%6.0%Claude Opus 4.5
EBR-bench14.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
VPCT40.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14761423Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: expert14871441Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14821429Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Vision: diagramsNot measured1251Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: homeworkNot measured1257Only Inkling Small measured
Kagi LLM Benchmark80.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index33
Math benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
AIME95.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
MGSM (Vals AI)95.2%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
AA Math Index91.3Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)91.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
OTIS Mock AIME86.1%90.0%Inkling Small
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 334.4%46.3%Inkling Small
FrontierMath, tier 44.9%17.1%Inkling Small
ProofBench36.0%6.0%Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: math14631459Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: mathematical work14681441Claude Opus 4.5
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index92
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
MMLU Pro87.3%85.6%Claude Opus 4.5
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.6%83.0%Claude Opus 4.5
CaseLaw (Vals AI)62.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)65.1%69.6%Inkling Small
TaxEval (Vals AI)74.9%75.5%Inkling Small
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.7%62.3%Claude Opus 4.5
MedQA (Vals AI)95.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)49.2%37.9%Claude Opus 4.5
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)89.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
SimpleQA Verified45.7%19.1%Claude Opus 4.5
GeoBench75.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena Text: science14541428Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14441413Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: legal and government14591415Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: business and finance14481413Claude Opus 4.5
FACTS Benchmark Suite43.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
Design Arena: websites1247Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: UI components1235Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: game dev1228Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: data viz1243Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: 3D1213Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: all code categories1242Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: SVG1180Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Design Arena: ASCII art1190Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index200
General benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
Vals IndexNot measured27.6%Only Inkling Small measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)Not measured59.4%Only Inkling Small measured
SAGE (Vals AI)52.1%32.7%Claude Opus 4.5
MedScribe (Vals AI)85.3%84.1%Claude Opus 4.5
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured50.0%Only Inkling Small measured
IFBench58.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)77.3%75.7%Claude Opus 4.5
DTBench89.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMCA44.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
CL-bench21.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Furniture assembly28.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
LMArena Text14511413Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: instruction following14781399Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: creative writing14451334Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena VisionNot measured1237Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: English14611421Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: non-English14381401Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Chinese14701464Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: German14491408Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Japanese14171401Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Korean14241367Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: French14711435Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Spanish14571422Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Russian14471394Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: Polish14391428Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: multi-turn14661416Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: longer queries14791402Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: writing and language14521357Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14341352Claude Opus 4.5
LMArena Vision: EnglishNot measured1243Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: ChineseNot measured1292Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: reading textNot measured1243Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: humorNot measured1207Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: creative writingNot measured1205Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Document1462Not measuredOnly Claude Opus 4.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Inkling SmallLeader
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 Opus 4.5$0.018Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.0010Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Opus 4.5$0.325Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.026Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Opus 4.5$1.25Exceeds the context window
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.

Specifications of Claude Opus 4.5 and Inkling Small
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Opus 4.5Thinking Machines Inkling Small
MakerAnthropicThinking Machines
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedNovember 24, 2025July 30, 2026
Context window200K524K
Input $/Mtok$5.00$0.45
Output $/Mtok$25.00$1.20
Coding index44.027.3
Independent measurements behind it34
Cost per solved task$1.37$0.16
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Opus 4.5 better than Inkling Small for coding?

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 for coding: it scores 44.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 3 benchmarks against 4. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 20.8x cheaper ($1.20 vs $25.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $1.37).

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.5 or Inkling Small?

Claude Opus 4.5 costs $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Opus 4.5 costs $1.37 and Inkling Small $0.16.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.5 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small, with 524K tokens against 200K.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Opus 4.5 vs Inkling Small comparison based on?

57 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Opus 4.5's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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