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Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Inkling

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads Inkling on coding, 57.3 to 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling costs 3.7x less per output token ($4.05 vs $15.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 88 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Claude Sonnet 4.6 Replace Inkling
Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic
Coding
57.3
Overall
60.3
Output $/M
$15.00
74
T InklingThinking Machines
Coding
31.5
Overall
46.5
Output $/M
$4.05
14
vs boards won of 88 shared

Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Inkling: which to pick

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 5 benchmarks against 6.

Pick Inkling for output tokens 3.7x cheaper ($4.05 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $1.68).

Model AClaude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic57.3/1005 independent benchmarks$1.68 per solved taskModel BInklingThinking Machines31.5/1006 independent benchmarks$0.76 per solved task
Shared results
88
Claude Sonnet 4.6 only
30
Inkling only
14
Like-for-like categories
8 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 Sonnet 4.6 57.3 from 5 benchmarks, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
Widest category
Coding, 13.7 points apart on average over 17 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
LiveBench browser: Claude Sonnet 4.6 68.0% against Inkling 16.0%, 52.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Sonnet 4.6 $15.00 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 3.7x apart.
Context window
Claude Sonnet 4.6 takes 1M tokens, Inkling 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 Sonnet 4.6BarsInklingTies
Coding152
Intelligence20
Agentic work91
Reasoning102
Math22
Knowledge73
Web design90
General204
All shared boards7414
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index152
Coding benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
LiveBench coding66.6%64.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev15231414Claude Sonnet 4.6
AA Coding Index63.052.1Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)82.1%85.5%Inkling
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)77.4%77.6%Inkling
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured0.5%Only Inkling measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)55.8%19.2%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Code migration (Vals AI)39.9%11.8%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.5%0.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
IOI (Vals AI)Not measured14.9%Only Inkling measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)57.3%47.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)Not measured7.3%Only Inkling measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)49.0%26.1%Claude Sonnet 4.6
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured66.8%Only Inkling measured
SciCode50.1%47.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)53.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Terminal-Bench53.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
FrontierCode24.3%14.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
FrontierSWENot measured4.1%Only Inkling measured
WeirdML66.1%32.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ALE-BenchNot measured946.0Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: coding15031466Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: software and IT14911465Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: React15121404Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: HTML15271399Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: from an image1529Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
AA Intelligence Index30.125.0Claude Sonnet 4.6
Epoch Capabilities Index152.8148.4Claude Sonnet 4.6
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index91
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
AA Agentic Index31.822.5Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building web apps11901196Inkling
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1213Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1212Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1197Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1226Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building games1177Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench research63.6%59.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveBench browser68.0%16.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveBench long agentic23.1%14.1%Claude Sonnet 4.6
SREBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Inkling measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)51.0%46.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)25.8%15.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)38.5%28.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured3.8%Only Inkling measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)60.2%38.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
τ²-Bench Telecom79.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
APEX-Agents43.0%33.8%Claude Sonnet 4.6
OSWorld 2.09.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
DeepResearch Bench54.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OSWorld72.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Vending-Bench 2$7,204Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index102
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
GPQA Diamond85.6%87.1%Inkling
LiveBench reasoning86.4%78.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.6%78.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)87.5%87.2%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)33.6%31.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)87.4%88.3%Inkling
ARC-AGI86.5%79.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ARC-AGI-260.4%36.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
SimpleBenchNot measured50.0%Only Inkling measured
Chess puzzles23.0%21.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Mystery game puzzles16.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14851451Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: expert15001466Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14931448Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: diagrams1306Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: homework1311Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22
Math benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
AIME92.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OTIS Mock AIME85.8%88.9%Inkling
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3Not measured33.3%Only Inkling measured
FrontierMath, tier 4Not measured4.9%Only Inkling measured
ProofBench45.0%0.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: math14621479Inkling
LMArena Text: mathematical work14831460Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index73
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
MMLU Pro87.3%86.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LegalBench (Vals AI)82.1%83.0%Inkling
CaseLaw (Vals AI)64.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)65.3%68.6%Inkling
TaxEval (Vals AI)77.1%75.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
MortgageTax (Vals AI)67.7%64.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
MedQA (Vals AI)92.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured41.2%Only Inkling measured
SimpleQA Verified35.5%40.3%Inkling
LMArena Text: science14741455Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14511447Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: legal and government14701448Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: business and finance14641438Claude Sonnet 4.6
FACTS Benchmark Suite37.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index90
Web design benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
Design Arena: websites12841224Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: UI components12691198Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: game dev12581165Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: data viz12781156Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: 3D12341160Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: all code categories12751205Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: SVG11961108Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: ASCII art12351089Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveBench design71.8%58.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index204
General benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
Vals IndexNot measured29.0%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench data analysis76.1%72.8%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)62.5%58.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
SAGE (Vals AI)46.6%36.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
MedScribe (Vals AI)Not measured85.4%Only Inkling measured
Vals Multimodal Index60.6%49.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
IFBench56.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)80.0%77.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
DTBench89.9%87.5%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMCA46.5%37.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ExploitBench23.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Text14581442Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: instruction following14761425Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: creative writing14351390Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision1283Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Text: English14721442Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: non-English14401434Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Chinese14911493Inkling
LMArena Text: German14281445Inkling
LMArena Text: Japanese14201429Inkling
LMArena Text: Korean14101403Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: French14651455Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Spanish14641449Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Russian14401430Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Polish14431450Inkling
LMArena Text: multi-turn14641437Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: longer queries14791435Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: writing and language14441404Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14311394Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: English1298Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese1307Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: reading text1296Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: humor1248Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing things1195Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing1272Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Document1482Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 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
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6InklingLeader
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 Sonnet 4.6$0.011Fits in one request
Inkling$0.0030Fits in one request

Inkling costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.195Fits in one request
Inkling$0.061Fits in one request

Inkling costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.750Fits in one request
Inkling$0.235Fits in one request

Inkling 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 Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6Thinking Machines Inkling
MakerAnthropicThinking Machines
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedFebruary 17, 2026July 17, 2026
Context window1M524K
Input $/Mtok$3.00$0.975
Output $/Mtok$15.00$4.05
Coding index57.331.5
Independent measurements behind it56
Cost per solved task$1.68$0.76
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 better than Inkling for coding?

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 5 benchmarks against 6. Pick Inkling for output tokens 3.7x cheaper ($4.05 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $1.68).

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Inkling?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $1.68 and Inkling $0.76.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Inkling?

Claude Sonnet 4.6, with 1M tokens against 524K.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Inkling comparison based on?

88 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6's coding index rests on 5 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/claude-sonnet-4-6-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling">LLMBenchmark.ai, Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Inkling</a></p>