Ember-1 vs Inkling 2 Small
Ember-1 leads Inkling 2 Small on coding, 52.6 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 15.0x less per output token ($1.00 vs $15.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 10 benchmarks have a result for both.
Ember-1 or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Ember-1 for coding: it scores 52.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small, though on 2 benchmarks against 3.
Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 15.0x cheaper ($1.00 vs $15.00 per million) and work measured by CyberBench (Vals AI) or Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 10
- Ember-1 only
- 6
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 41
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 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
Ember-1
Ember-1 scores 52.6 against 48.9.
2 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Inkling 2 Small has a AA Intelligence Index result, 30.6.
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
Ember-1 $0.011, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Ember-1 52.6 from 2 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 5.4 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI): Ember-1 20.7% against Inkling 2 Small 12.6%, 10.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Ember-1 $15.00 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 15.0x 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 | Ember-1 | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 4 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 0 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 3 | 7 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index21
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1647 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 20.7% | 12.6% | Ember-1 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 83.9% | 81.5% | Ember-1 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 32.5% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 46.3% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 43.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 69.5% | 72.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| 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 |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1443 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1660 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1661 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GameBench 2 | 63.1 | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 30.6 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index14
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 31.1% | 38.9% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 44.7% | 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) | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 67.0% | 70.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 5.7% | 2.9% | Ember-1 |
| Vals Science Index | 31.8% | 32.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 46.8% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 22.5% | 25.2% | Inkling 2 Small |
| 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 |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 81.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1421 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1478 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1424 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MathArena | Not measured | 42.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | Not measured | 16.1 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1409 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1415 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 56.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 66.2% | Not measured | Only Ember-1 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 86.4% | 88.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 83.3% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| GDPval-AA | Not measured | 1630 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1408 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1348 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1418 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1390 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1377 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1408 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1381 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1359 | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ember-1 | 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 | Fireworks Ember-1 | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Fireworks | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 24, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $3.00 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $15.00 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 52.6 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Ember-1 better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Ember-1 for coding: it scores 52.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small, though on 2 benchmarks against 3. Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 15.0x cheaper ($1.00 vs $15.00 per million) and work measured by CyberBench (Vals AI) or Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Ember-1 or Inkling 2 Small?
Ember-1 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 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, Ember-1 or Inkling 2 Small?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Ember-1 vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
10 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Ember-1's coding index rests on 2 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.