Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Inkling 2 Small
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads Inkling 2 Small on coding, 84.3 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 10.0x less per output token ($1.00 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 49 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 49 shared, 1 tied
Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 for coding: it scores 84.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small.
Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 10.0x cheaper ($1.00 vs $10.00 per million) and a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens).
Model AClaude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic84.3/1005 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved taskModel BInkling 2 SmallThinking Machines48.9/1003 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 49
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 only
- 72
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 2
- 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 84.3 against 48.9.
5 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads, 54.5 against 30.6.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1309.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads, 70.8% against 56.1%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling 2 Small
Claude Sonnet 5.5 $0.0070, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 84.3 from 5 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 23.9 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 64.1% against Inkling 2 Small 12.6%, 68.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 $10.00 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 10.0x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes 1M tokens, Inkling 2 Small 1.05M.
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 Sonnet 5.5 | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 12 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 7 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 8 | 0 | 1 tie | |
| Knowledge | 3 | 0 | ||
| General | 12 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 43 | 5 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index122
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 77.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1772 | 1647 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 64.1% | 12.6% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 92.4% | 81.5% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 6.5% | 0.5% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 83.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 83.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 58.3% | 43.1% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 59.6% | 72.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| SciCode | 61.0% | 52.3% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 63.6% | 13.1% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 41.7% | 25.4% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MirrorCode | 97.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1819.1 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1501 | 1455 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1497 | 1443 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1822 | 1660 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1753 | 1661 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1744 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SciCode | 13.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | 95.8% | 97.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GameBench 2 | 91.4 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | 61.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | 55.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 54.5 | 30.6 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 166.6 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index71
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1296 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1259 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1250 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1238 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench research | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 89.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 30.1% | 1.9% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 58.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 42.0% | 38.9% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 48.1% | 46.6% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 10.4% | 21.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 75.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 81.1% | 70.0% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 47.1% | 2.9% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Vals Science Index | 59.1% | 32.7% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | 46.8% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| SpireClimb | 1.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $11,165 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index80
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 91.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 49.1% | 25.2% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 55.0% | 44.1% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 53.3% | 28.7% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 59.0% | 35.0% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 96.5% | 96.5% | Tie |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 83.9% | 81.7% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| SimpleBench | 75.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 59.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 65.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1488 | 1421 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1508 | 1478 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1494 | 1424 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1316 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1322 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 37.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| GoBench | 2085 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 88.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 80.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ProofBench | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1483 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1501 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MathArena | Not measured | 42.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 52.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| AA-Omniscience | 30.5 | 16.1 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1482 | 1409 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1466 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1480 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1465 | 1415 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 58.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1309 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1389 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1387 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1359 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1400 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1345 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1299 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench design | 81.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index122
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 70.8% | 56.1% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LiveBench data analysis | 59.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 67.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 88.0% | 88.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 91.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.7% | 83.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GDPval-AA | 1838 | 1630 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| DTBench | 97.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMCA | 68.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 75.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1469 | 1403 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1487 | 1408 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1466 | 1348 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision | 1284 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1479 | 1418 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1455 | 1390 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1533 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1448 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1456 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1413 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1494 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1463 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1460 | 1377 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1492 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1462 | 1408 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1487 | 1403 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1470 | 1381 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1454 | 1359 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1282 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1387 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1296 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1266 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1264 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Inkling 2 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 5.5$0.0070Fits in one request
Inkling 2 Small$0.0008Fits in one request
Inkling 2 Small costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5$0.130Fits in one request
Inkling 2 Small$0.018Fits in one request
Inkling 2 Small costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5$0.500Fits in one request
Inkling 2 Small$0.070Fits in one request
Inkling 2 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 Sonnet 5.5 | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 28, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 84.3 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 for coding: it scores 84.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small. Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 10.0x cheaper ($1.00 vs $10.00 per million) and a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens).
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Inkling 2 Small?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Inkling 2 Small costs $0.30 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Inkling 2 Small?
Inkling 2 Small, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
49 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5's coding index rests on 5 independent benchmarks and Inkling 2 Small's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.