DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 vs Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 on coding, 48.9 to 38.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 2.6x less per output token ($1.00 vs $2.60 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 27 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 38.7 for DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423, though on 3 benchmarks against 5.
Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 for work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 27
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 only
- 62
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 24
- 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
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small scores 48.9 against 38.7.
5 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling 2 Small
Inkling 2 Small leads, 30.6 against 12.6.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 has a GPQA Diamond result, 89.4%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 has a MMLU Pro result, 87.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1227.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling 2 Small has a Vals Index result, 56.1%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling 2 Small
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 $0.0026, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 has the number, $0.57.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 38.7 from 5 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 18.6 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 49.9% against Inkling 2 Small 81.5%, 31.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 $2.60 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 2.6x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 1.05M tokens.
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 V4 Pro 0423 | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 6 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 1 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 10 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 16 | 11 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index26
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1448 | 1647 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 87.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 77.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 11.1% | 12.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 49.9% | 81.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 26.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 50.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 43.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 51.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 52.3% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 13.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | Not measured | 25.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| FrontierCode | 17.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| WeirdML | 48.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1006.1 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1469 | 1455 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1469 | 1443 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1441 | 1660 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1434 | 1661 | Inkling 2 Small |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SWE Atlas: Codebase QnA | 27.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| SWE Atlas: Test Writing | 27.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| GameBench 2 | 51.4 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 12.6 | 30.6 | Inkling 2 Small |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.2 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1000 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 948 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1059 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 44.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 25.2% | 38.9% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 23.1% | 46.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 21.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 51.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.0% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 32.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 46.8% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $3,285 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 55.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 89.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.2% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 44.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 28.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 35.0% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 81.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Chess puzzles | 19.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 17.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1461 | 1421 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1463 | 1478 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1466 | 1424 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 53.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 13.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 96.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 45.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 2.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| ProofBench | 16.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1442 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1455 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| MathArena | 24.5% | 42.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 87.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 80.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 59.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 61.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 40.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| AA-Omniscience | Not measured | 16.1 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 47.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1468 | 1409 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1465 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1464 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1443 | 1415 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1227 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1211 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1221 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1200 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1232 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1231 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1128 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1143 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index100
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 56.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 62.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 75.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 83.3% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GDPval-AA | Not measured | 1630 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| DTBench | 90.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMCA | 41.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 40.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| CL-bench Life | 13.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1451 | 1403 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1446 | 1408 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1446 | 1348 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1459 | 1418 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1439 | 1390 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1481 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1457 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1445 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1407 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1472 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1456 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1454 | 1377 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1459 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1467 | 1408 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1458 | 1403 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1447 | 1381 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1431 | 1359 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1156 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | 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
Inkling 2 Small costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Inkling 2 Small costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | April 24, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.30 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.60 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 38.7 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.57 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Inkling 2 Small for coding: it scores 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 38.7 for DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423, though on 3 benchmarks against 5. Pick DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 for work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 or Inkling 2 Small?
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 costs $1.30 per million input tokens and $2.60 per million output tokens; Inkling 2 Small costs $0.30 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 or Inkling 2 Small?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
27 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423'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.