DeepSeek V3.2 vs Inkling
Inkling leads DeepSeek V3.2 on coding, 31.5 to 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index, and DeepSeek V3.2 costs 4.6x less per output token ($0.88 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 58 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3.2 or Inkling: which to pick
DeepSeek V3.2 and Inkling are level for coding, 30.0 against 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide.
Pick DeepSeek V3.2 for output tokens 4.6x cheaper ($0.88 vs $4.05 per million) and work measured by Design Arena: data viz or LMArena Text: creative writing, where it leads. Pick Inkling for a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $0.99) and a larger context window (524K against 164K tokens).
- Shared results
- 58
- DeepSeek V3.2 only
- 17
- Inkling only
- 44
- 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Level: 30.0 against 31.5, inside 2 points.
3 and 6 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 25.0 against 21.5.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling has a AA Agentic Index result, 22.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Inkling
Inkling leads, 87.1% against 80.3%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.2 has a AIME result, 84.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Inkling
Inkling leads, 86.3% against 84.9%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Inkling
Inkling leads, 1224 against 1175.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling has a Vals Index result, 29.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling
Inkling takes 524K tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3.2
DeepSeek V3.2 $0.0007, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Inkling
DeepSeek V3.2 $0.99, Inkling $0.76.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3.2 30.0 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 12.5 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- ARC-AGI-2: DeepSeek V3.2 4.0% against Inkling 36.5%, 32.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3.2 $0.88 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 4.6x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3.2 takes 164K 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.
| Category | DeepSeek V3.2 | Bars | Inkling | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 9 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 8 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 8 | ||
| Web design | 1 | 7 | ||
| General | 3 | 17 | ||
| All shared boards | 4 | 54 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index09
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 70.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 59.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1362 | 1414 | Inkling |
| AA Coding Index | 44.2 | 52.1 | Inkling |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.7% | 85.5% | Inkling |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 67.6% | 77.6% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 5.1% | 19.2% | Inkling |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 47.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 35.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 39.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 32.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 946.0 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1453 | 1466 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1449 | 1465 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1350 | 1404 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1371 | 1399 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 21.5 | 25.0 | Inkling |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.1 | 148.4 | Inkling |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 22.5 | Only Inkling measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 16.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 14.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 46.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 90.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 21.3% | 33.8% | Inkling |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $1,034 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 80.3% | 87.1% | Inkling |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.0% | 87.2% | Inkling |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 24.6% | 31.9% | Inkling |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI | 57.0% | 79.5% | Inkling |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.0% | 36.5% | Inkling |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 21.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1434 | 1451 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1436 | 1466 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1446 | 1448 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 84.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 86.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| AA Math Index | 92.0 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1435 | 1479 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1440 | 1460 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 84.9% | 86.3% | Inkling |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 76.1% | 83.0% | Inkling |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 51.0% | 68.6% | Inkling |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 68.2% | 75.3% | Inkling |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 93.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1446 | 1455 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1440 | 1447 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1425 | 1448 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1410 | 1438 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1175 | 1224 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1146 | 1198 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1131 | 1165 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1158 | 1156 | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1132 | 1160 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1163 | 1205 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1032 | 1108 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1083 | 1089 | Inkling |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 58.3% | Only Inkling measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index317
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 49.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| IFBench | 60.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 73.3% | 77.3% | Inkling |
| DTBench | 85.6% | 87.5% | Inkling |
| LMCA | 28.8% | 37.6% | Inkling |
| CL-bench | 12.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| CL-bench Life | 7.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1425 | 1442 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1413 | 1425 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1400 | 1390 | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1439 | 1442 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1409 | 1434 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1455 | 1493 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: German | 1413 | 1445 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1374 | 1429 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1370 | 1403 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: French | 1429 | 1455 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1424 | 1449 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1424 | 1430 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1419 | 1450 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1427 | 1437 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1428 | 1435 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1407 | 1404 | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1395 | 1394 | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inkling | 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
DeepSeek V3.2 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.2 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.2 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 | DeepSeek V3.2 | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | December 1, 2025 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.29 | $0.975 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.88 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | 30.0 | 31.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.99 | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3.2 better than Inkling for coding?
DeepSeek V3.2 and Inkling are level for coding, 30.0 against 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide. Pick DeepSeek V3.2 for output tokens 4.6x cheaper ($0.88 vs $4.05 per million) and work measured by Design Arena: data viz or LMArena Text: creative writing, where it leads. Pick Inkling for a lower cost per solved task ($0.76 against $0.99) and a larger context window (524K against 164K tokens).
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.2 or Inkling?
DeepSeek V3.2 costs $0.29 per million input tokens and $0.88 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, DeepSeek V3.2 costs $0.99 and Inkling $0.76.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3.2 or Inkling?
Inkling, with 524K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3.2 vs Inkling comparison based on?
58 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. DeepSeek V3.2's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.