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Claude Sonnet 5 vs Inkling

Claude Sonnet 5 leads Inkling on coding, 57.7 to 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling costs 2.5x less per output token ($4.05 vs $10.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 97 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Claude Sonnet 5 Replace Inkling
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic
Coding
57.7
Overall
63.2
Output $/M
$10.00
82
T InklingThinking Machines
Coding
31.5
Overall
46.5
Output $/M
$4.05
14
vs boards won of 97 shared, 1 tied

Claude Sonnet 5 or Inkling: which to pick

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for coding: it scores 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling.

Pick Inkling for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($4.05 vs $10.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $1.87).

Model AClaude Sonnet 5Anthropic57.7/1006 independent benchmarks$1.87 per solved taskModel BInklingThinking Machines31.5/1006 independent benchmarks$0.76 per solved task
Shared results
97
Claude Sonnet 5 only
24
Inkling only
5
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 5 57.7 from 6 benchmarks, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
Widest category
Math, 24.2 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
ProofBench: Claude Sonnet 5 77.0% against Inkling 0.0%, 77.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Sonnet 5 $10.00 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5 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 5BarsInklingTies
Coding2011 tie
Intelligence20
Agentic work110
Reasoning110
Math51
Knowledge74
Web design90
General178
All shared boards82141 tie
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index201
Coding benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
LiveBench coding74.7%64.0%Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev15401414Claude Sonnet 5
AA Coding Index71.552.1Claude Sonnet 5
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)82.4%85.5%Inkling
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)79.6%77.6%Claude Sonnet 5
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)10.6%0.5%Claude Sonnet 5
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)81.3%19.2%Claude Sonnet 5
Code migration (Vals AI)44.4%11.8%Claude Sonnet 5
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%0.0%Tie
IOI (Vals AI)45.0%14.9%Claude Sonnet 5
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)74.5%47.6%Claude Sonnet 5
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)13.8%7.3%Claude Sonnet 5
SkillsBench (Vals AI)46.5%26.1%Claude Sonnet 5
CyberBench (Vals AI)70.3%66.8%Claude Sonnet 5
SciCode54.3%47.0%Claude Sonnet 5
FrontierCode42.7%14.0%Claude Sonnet 5
FrontierSWENot measured4.1%Only Inkling measured
GSO-Bench37.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
WeirdML68.8%32.3%Claude Sonnet 5
ALE-Bench1463.1946.0Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: coding14831466Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: software and IT14741465Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev: React15411404Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev: HTML15271399Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev: from an image1540Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
SciCode10.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 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 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
AA Intelligence Index38.225.0Claude Sonnet 5
Epoch Capabilities Index156.9148.4Claude Sonnet 5
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
AA Agentic Index43.622.5Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building web apps12451196Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1249Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1215Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1225Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1225Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building games1227Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: HTML slides1218Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides1216Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets1021Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LiveBench research82.8%59.9%Claude Sonnet 5
LiveBench browser72.0%16.0%Claude Sonnet 5
LiveBench long agentic39.0%14.1%Claude Sonnet 5
SREBench (Vals AI)0.4%0.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Finance Agent (Vals AI)53.9%46.6%Claude Sonnet 5
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)29.4%15.3%Claude Sonnet 5
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)41.8%28.4%Claude Sonnet 5
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured3.8%Only Inkling measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)66.3%38.4%Claude Sonnet 5
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)5.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
APEX-Agents54.5%33.8%Claude Sonnet 5
Vending-Bench 2$6,378Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
GPQA Diamond88.9%87.1%Claude Sonnet 5
LiveBench reasoning88.7%78.3%Claude Sonnet 5
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.0%78.5%Claude Sonnet 5
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)91.1%87.2%Claude Sonnet 5
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)41.3%31.9%Claude Sonnet 5
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)90.5%88.3%Claude Sonnet 5
ARC-AGINot measured79.5%Only Inkling measured
ARC-AGI-2Not measured36.5%Only Inkling measured
SimpleBench60.6%50.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Chess puzzles45.0%21.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Mystery game puzzles35.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14611451Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: expert14891466Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14641448Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision: diagrams1293Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Vision: homework1311Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51
Math benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
OTIS Mock AIME94.7%88.9%Claude Sonnet 5
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 365.6%33.3%Claude Sonnet 5
FrontierMath, tier 429.3%4.9%Claude Sonnet 5
ProofBench77.0%0.0%Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: math14671479Inkling
LMArena Text: mathematical work14811460Claude Sonnet 5
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index74
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
MMLU Pro87.5%86.3%Claude Sonnet 5
LegalBench (Vals AI)83.9%83.0%Claude Sonnet 5
CorpFin (Vals AI)67.0%68.6%Inkling
TaxEval (Vals AI)75.6%75.3%Claude Sonnet 5
MortgageTax (Vals AI)70.0%64.0%Claude Sonnet 5
MedCode (Vals AI)47.5%41.2%Claude Sonnet 5
SimpleQA Verified33.7%40.3%Inkling
LMArena Text: science14601455Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14421447Inkling
LMArena Text: legal and government14541448Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: business and finance14361438Inkling
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index90
Web design benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
Design Arena: websites12741224Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: UI components12801201Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: game dev12781166Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: data viz12511159Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: 3D12611161Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: all code categories12761206Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: SVG11931110Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: ASCII art12071089Claude Sonnet 5
LiveBench design82.0%58.3%Claude Sonnet 5
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index178
General benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
Vals IndexNot measured29.0%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench data analysis71.7%72.8%Inkling
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)66.0%58.5%Claude Sonnet 5
SAGE (Vals AI)48.9%36.5%Claude Sonnet 5
MedScribe (Vals AI)76.0%85.4%Inkling
Vals Multimodal Index68.8%49.4%Claude Sonnet 5
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)82.0%77.3%Claude Sonnet 5
DTBench92.5%87.5%Claude Sonnet 5
LMCA50.0%37.6%Claude Sonnet 5
Surface Evolver Bench60.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Text14421442Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: instruction following14521425Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: creative writing14161390Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision1273Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Text: English14501442Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: non-English14311434Inkling
LMArena Text: Chinese14781493Inkling
LMArena Text: German14421445Inkling
LMArena Text: Japanese14221429Inkling
LMArena Text: Korean14121403Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: French14631455Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: Spanish14381449Inkling
LMArena Text: Russian14501430Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: Polish14251450Inkling
LMArena Text: multi-turn14531437Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: longer queries14621435Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: writing and language14361404Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14111394Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision: English1275Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese1331Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Vision: reading text1288Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Vision: humor1261Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing1246Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Document1466Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 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
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Inkling
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5InklingLeader
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$0.0070Fits in one request
Inkling$0.0030Fits in one request

Inkling costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5$0.130Fits in one request
Inkling$0.061Fits in one request

Inkling costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5$0.500Fits 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 5 and Inkling
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Sonnet 5Thinking Machines Inkling
MakerAnthropicThinking Machines
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedJune 30, 2026July 17, 2026
Context window1M524K
Input $/Mtok$2.00$0.975
Output $/Mtok$10.00$4.05
Coding index57.731.5
Independent measurements behind it66
Cost per solved task$1.87$0.76
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5 better than Inkling for coding?

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for coding: it scores 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling. Pick Inkling for output tokens 2.5x cheaper ($4.05 vs $10.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $1.87).

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Inkling?

Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $1.87 and Inkling $0.76.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Inkling?

Claude Sonnet 5, with 1M tokens against 524K.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 5 vs Inkling comparison based on?

97 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5's coding index rests on 6 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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<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/claude-sonnet-5-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling" title="Claude Sonnet 5 vs Inkling, 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-5-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling">LLMBenchmark.ai, Claude Sonnet 5 vs Inkling</a></p>