Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Inkling Small

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads Inkling Small on coding, 57.3 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 12.5x less per output token ($1.20 vs $15.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 75 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Claude Sonnet 4.6 Replace Inkling Small

Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic

Coding: 57.3
Overall: 60.3
Output $/M: $15.00

T Inkling SmallThinking Machines

Coding: 27.3
Overall: 43.6
Output $/M: $1.20

vs boards won of 75 shared, 1 tied

Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Inkling Small: which to pick

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small.

Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 12.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $1.68).

Model AClaude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic57.3/1005 independent benchmarks$1.68 per solved task Model BInkling SmallThinking Machines27.3/1004 independent benchmarks$0.16 per solved task

75439

Shared results: 75
Claude Sonnet 4.6 only: 43
Inkling Small only: 9
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 Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 57.3 against 27.3.
5 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 30.1 against 25.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 31.8 against 23.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 85.6% against 83.6%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a AIME result, 92.3%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads, 87.3% against 85.6%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1284.
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 Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6 takes 1M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling Small
Claude Sonnet 4.6 $0.011, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling Small
Claude Sonnet 4.6 $1.68, Inkling Small $0.16.
Published attempt cost and pass rate

At a glance

Coding index: Claude Sonnet 4.6 57.3 from 5 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
Widest category: Agentic work, 14.0 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap: ProofBench: Claude Sonnet 4.6 45.0% against Inkling Small 6.0%, 39.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: Claude Sonnet 4.6 $15.00 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 12.5x apart.
Context window: Claude Sonnet 4.6 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
Category	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Ties
Coding	12	2	1 tie
Intelligence	2	0
Agentic work	5	0
Reasoning	10	2
Math	3	1
Knowledge	8	2
General	27	0
All shared boards	67	7	1 tie

CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index122

Coding benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
LiveBench coding	66.6%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena WebDev	1523	1409	Claude Sonnet 4.6
AA Coding Index	63.0	52.9	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)	82.1%	85.9%	Inkling Small
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)	77.4%	82.2%	Inkling Small
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)	Not measured	0.0%	Only Inkling Small measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)	55.8%	19.1%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Code migration (Vals AI)	39.9%	13.7%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
ProgramBench (Vals AI)	0.5%	0.5%	Tie
IOI (Vals AI)	Not measured	9.3%	Only Inkling Small measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)	57.3%	55.1%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
SkillsBench (Vals AI)	49.0%	33.6%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
CyberBench (Vals AI)	Not measured	64.1%	Only Inkling Small measured
SciCode	50.1%	49.7%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)	53.0%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Terminal-Bench	53.4%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
FrontierCode	24.3%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
WeirdML	66.1%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Text: coding	1503	1450	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: software and IT	1491	1447	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: React	1512	1399	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: HTML	1527	1398	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: from an image	1529	1410	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here

IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20

Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	30.1	25.7	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Epoch Capabilities Index	152.8	150.3	Claude Sonnet 4.6

Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50

Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
AA Agentic Index	31.8	23.5	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building web apps	1190	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps	1213	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps	1212	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps	1197	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games	1226	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building games	1177	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench research	63.6%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench browser	68.0%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench long agentic	23.1%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)	51.0%	41.3%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)	25.8%	15.4%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)	38.5%	25.5%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)	Not measured	2.9%	Only Inkling Small measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)	60.2%	31.8%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
τ²-Bench Telecom	79.5%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
APEX-Agents	43.0%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OSWorld 2.0	9.3%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
DeepResearch Bench	54.9%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OSWorld	72.1%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Vending-Bench 2	$7,204	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here

ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index102

Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
GPQA Diamond	85.6%	83.6%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveBench reasoning	86.4%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)	83.6%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	87.5%	89.5%	Inkling Small
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	33.6%	33.3%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)	87.4%	88.5%	Inkling Small
ARC-AGI	86.5%	84.0%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
ARC-AGI-2	60.4%	40.1%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Chess puzzles	23.0%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Mystery game puzzles	16.0%	6.0%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: hard prompts	1485	1423	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: expert	1500	1441	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	1493	1429	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: diagrams	1306	1251	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: homework	1311	1257	Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31

Math benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
AIME	92.3%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OTIS Mock AIME	85.8%	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	45.0%	6.0%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: math	1462	1459	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: mathematical work	1483	1441	Claude 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 index82

Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
MMLU Pro	87.3%	85.6%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LegalBench (Vals AI)	82.1%	83.0%	Inkling Small
CaseLaw (Vals AI)	64.0%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)	65.3%	69.6%	Inkling Small
TaxEval (Vals AI)	77.1%	75.5%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
MortgageTax (Vals AI)	67.7%	62.3%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
MedQA (Vals AI)	92.1%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)	Not measured	37.9%	Only Inkling Small measured
SimpleQA Verified	35.5%	19.1%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: science	1474	1428	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	1451	1413	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: legal and government	1470	1415	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: business and finance	1464	1413	Claude Sonnet 4.6
FACTS Benchmark Suite	37.0%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here

Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared

Web design benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
Design Arena: websites	1284	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: UI components	1269	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: game dev	1258	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: data viz	1278	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: 3D	1234	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: all code categories	1275	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: SVG	1196	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Design Arena: ASCII art	1235	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench design	71.8%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured

GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index270

General benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Inkling Small	Leader
Vals Index	Not measured	27.6%	Only Inkling Small measured
LiveBench data analysis	76.1%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)	62.5%	59.4%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
SAGE (Vals AI)	46.6%	32.7%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
MedScribe (Vals AI)	Not measured	84.1%	Only Inkling Small measured
Vals Multimodal Index	60.6%	50.0%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
IFBench	56.6%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	80.0%	75.7%	Claude Sonnet 4.6
DTBench	89.9%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMCA	46.5%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
ExploitBench	23.6%	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Text	1458	1413	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: instruction following	1476	1399	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: creative writing	1435	1334	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision	1283	1237	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: English	1472	1421	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: non-English	1440	1401	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Chinese	1491	1464	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: German	1428	1408	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Japanese	1420	1401	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Korean	1410	1367	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: French	1465	1435	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Spanish	1464	1422	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Russian	1440	1394	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Polish	1443	1428	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: multi-turn	1464	1416	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: longer queries	1479	1402	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: writing and language	1444	1357	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	1431	1352	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: English	1298	1243	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: Chinese	1307	1292	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: reading text	1296	1243	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: humor	1248	1207	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: recognizing things	1195	Not measured	Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing	1272	1205	Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Document	1482	Not measured	Only 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 Small
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 4.6	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 Sonnet 4.6$0.011Fits in one request

Inkling Small$0.0010Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.195Fits in one request

Inkling Small$0.026Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.750Fits 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.

Specifications of Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Inkling Small
Specification	Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6	Thinking Machines Inkling Small
Maker	Anthropic	Thinking Machines
Weights	No public weights listed	Open weights
Released	February 17, 2026	July 30, 2026
Context window	1M	524K
Input $/Mtok	$3.00	$0.45
Output $/Mtok	$15.00	$1.20
Coding index	57.3	27.3
Independent measurements behind it	5	4
Cost per solved task	$1.68	$0.16
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 better than Inkling Small for coding?

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 12.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $1.68).

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Inkling Small?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $1.68 and Inkling Small $0.16.

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

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

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

75 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 Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

Compare next

Embed this comparison on your site

Free under CC BY 4.0, while the source link stays visible. Preview the frame · Terms and other embeds

<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/claude-sonnet-4-6-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling-small" title="Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Inkling Small, LLMBenchmark.ai" width="100%" height="360" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<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-small">LLMBenchmark.ai, Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Inkling Small</a></p>

Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Inkling Small: which to pick

Which one for your work

Coding

Intelligence

Agentic work

Reasoning

Math

Knowledge

Web design

General

Long documents

Everyday cost

Cost per solved task

At a glance

Benchmark by benchmark

What each workload costs

Chat turn

Repository review

Agent loop

Specification differences

Questions

Compare next