GLM 5.3 vs Inkling 2 Small
GLM 5.3 leads Inkling 2 Small on coding, 68.5 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling 2 Small costs 4.4x less per output token ($1.00 vs $4.40 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 44 benchmarks have a result for both.
GLM 5.3 or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick GLM 5.3 for coding: it scores 68.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small.
Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 4.4x cheaper ($1.00 vs $4.40 per million) and work measured by LMArena WebDev or Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 44
- GLM 5.3 only
- 65
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 7
- 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
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 scores 68.5 against 48.9.
5 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 leads, 31.7 against 30.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only GLM 5.3 has a AA Agentic Index result, 53.1.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only GLM 5.3 has a GPQA Diamond result, 88.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only GLM 5.3 has a MMLU Pro result, 86.8%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only GLM 5.3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1279.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3 leads, 59.9% against 56.1%.
Same board, both measured
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
GLM 5.3 $0.0036, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only GLM 5.3 has the number, $0.36.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 5.3 68.5 from 5 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 11.2 points apart on average over 13 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI): GLM 5.3 38.9% against Inkling 2 Small 12.6%, 35.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GLM 5.3 $4.40 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 4.4x 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 | GLM 5.3 | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 6 | 7 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 5 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 4 | ||
| Knowledge | 2 | 1 | ||
| General | 12 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 29 | 15 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index67
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1622 | 1647 | Inkling 2 Small |
| AA Coding Index | 74.8 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 95.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 38.9% | 12.6% | GLM 5.3 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 78.1% | 81.5% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 44.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 1.5% | 0.5% | GLM 5.3 |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 68.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 71.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 43.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 20.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 47.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 72.1% | 72.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| SciCode | 59.0% | 52.3% | GLM 5.3 |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 41.9% | 13.1% | GLM 5.3 |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 21.6% | 25.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| FrontierCode | 40.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| FrontierSWE | 30.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| WeirdML | 75.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1317.4 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1499 | 1455 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1495 | 1443 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1642 | 1660 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1596 | 1661 | Inkling 2 Small |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | 95.6% | 97.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GameBench 2 | 72.3 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 3.0 | 32.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | 41.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | 42.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 31.7 | 30.6 | GLM 5.3 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 157.1 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index52
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 53.1 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1270 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1184 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1189 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1217 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 9.2% | 1.9% | GLM 5.3 |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 43.3% | 38.9% | GLM 5.3 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 49.0% | 46.6% | GLM 5.3 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 14.6% | 21.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 56.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.0% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 5.7% | 2.9% | GLM 5.3 |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 32.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| APEX-Agents | 56.6% | 46.8% | GLM 5.3 |
| PostTrainBench | 34.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $8,164 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| MCP Atlas | 84.2% | 85.4% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index34
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 23.0% | 25.2% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 91.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 42.3% | 44.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.9% | 28.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.5% | 35.0% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 96.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 81.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SimpleBench | 66.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 37.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 33.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1493 | 1421 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1519 | 1478 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1500 | 1424 | GLM 5.3 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Scale run) | 16.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 91.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 68.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 29.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| ProofBench | 49.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1500 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1502 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 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 index21
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 42.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| AA-Omniscience | 6.0 | 16.1 | Inkling 2 Small |
| SimpleQA Verified | 41.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1499 | 1409 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1483 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1481 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1461 | 1415 | GLM 5.3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1279 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1284 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1289 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1251 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1295 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1284 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1246 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1208 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index121
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 59.9% | 56.1% | GLM 5.3 |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 68.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 88.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.7% | 83.3% | Inkling 2 Small |
| GDPval-AA | 1655 | 1630 | GLM 5.3 |
| DTBench | 87.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMCA | 55.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1475 | 1403 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1483 | 1408 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1459 | 1348 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1483 | 1418 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1462 | 1390 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1535 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1497 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1470 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1440 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1498 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1467 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1472 | 1377 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1463 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1474 | 1408 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1486 | 1403 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1468 | 1381 | GLM 5.3 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1447 | 1359 | GLM 5.3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 | 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 | Z.ai GLM 5.3 | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | August 18, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.40 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $4.40 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 68.5 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.36 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GLM 5.3 better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick GLM 5.3 for coding: it scores 68.5 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small. Pick Inkling 2 Small for output tokens 4.4x cheaper ($1.00 vs $4.40 per million) and work measured by LMArena WebDev or Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, GLM 5.3 or Inkling 2 Small?
GLM 5.3 costs $1.40 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output tokens; Inkling 2 Small costs $0.30 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for GLM 5.3 only.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 5.3 or Inkling 2 Small?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the GLM 5.3 vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
44 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. GLM 5.3'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.