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GLM 5 vs Inkling Small

GLM 5 leads Inkling Small on coding, 41.7 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 2.7x less per output token ($1.20 vs $3.20 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 48 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace GLM 5 Replace Inkling Small
GLM 5Z.ai
Coding
41.7
Overall
54.3
Output $/M
$3.20
34
T Inkling SmallThinking Machines
Coding
27.3
Overall
43.6
Output $/M
$1.20
13
vs boards won of 48 shared, 1 tied

GLM 5 or Inkling Small: which to pick

Pick GLM 5 for coding: it scores 41.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 3 benchmarks against 4.

Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 2.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.20 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $0.63).

Model AGLM 5Z.ai41.7/1003 independent benchmarks$0.63 per solved taskModel BInkling SmallThinking Machines27.3/1004 independent benchmarks$0.16 per solved task
Shared results
48
GLM 5 only
28
Inkling Small only
36
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.

At a glance

Coding index
GLM 5 41.7 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
Widest category
Reasoning, 11.0 points apart on average over 9 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
ARC-AGI: GLM 5 44.7% against Inkling Small 84.0%, 39.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
GLM 5 $3.20 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.7x apart.
Context window
GLM 5 takes 205K tokens, Inkling Small 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
CategoryGLM 5BarsInkling SmallTies
Coding62
Intelligence11
Reasoning36
Math12
Knowledge62
General1701 tie
All shared boards34131 tie
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index62
Coding benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
SWE-bench Verified72.8%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
SWE-bench Multilingual69.7%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
LMArena WebDev14351409GLM 5
AA Coding IndexNot measured52.9Only Inkling Small measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)81.9%85.9%Inkling Small
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)71.4%82.2%Inkling Small
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Inkling Small measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)23.4%19.1%GLM 5
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured13.7%Only Inkling Small measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.5%Only Inkling Small measured
IOI (Vals AI)Not measured9.3%Only Inkling Small measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured55.1%Only Inkling Small measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)Not measured33.6%Only Inkling Small measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured64.1%Only Inkling Small measured
SciCodeNot measured49.7%Only Inkling Small measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)43.2%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Terminal-Bench52.4%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
WeirdML48.2%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
ALE-Bench765.6Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
LMArena Text: coding14611450GLM 5
LMArena Text: software and IT14601447GLM 5
LMArena WebDev: React14241399GLM 5
LMArena WebDev: HTML14501398GLM 5
LMArena WebDev: from an imageNot measured1410Only Inkling Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
Intelligence benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
AA Intelligence Index27.925.7GLM 5
Epoch Capabilities Index145.8150.3Inkling Small
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13 boards, none shared
Agentic work benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
AA Agentic IndexNot measured23.5Only Inkling Small measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1123Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1136Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1146Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1144Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: HTML slides1148Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured41.3%Only Inkling Small measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)Not measured15.4%Only Inkling Small measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured25.5%Only Inkling Small measured
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured2.9%Only Inkling Small measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured31.8%Only Inkling Small measured
τ²-Bench Telecom98.2%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Vending-Bench 2$4,432Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index36
Reasoning benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
GPQA Diamond83.3%83.6%Inkling Small
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)82.0%89.5%Inkling Small
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)29.3%33.3%Inkling Small
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)87.8%88.5%Inkling Small
ARC-AGI44.7%84.0%Inkling Small
ARC-AGI-24.9%40.1%Inkling Small
SimpleBench53.2%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Mystery game puzzlesNot measured6.0%Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14521423GLM 5
LMArena Text: expert14541441GLM 5
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14601429GLM 5
LMArena Vision: diagramsNot measured1251Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: homeworkNot measured1257Only Inkling Small measured
Kagi LLM Benchmark75.0%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
Math benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
AIME91.7%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
OTIS Mock AIME80.0%90.0%Inkling Small
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3Not measured46.3%Only Inkling Small measured
FrontierMath, tier 4Not measured17.1%Only Inkling Small measured
ProofBenchNot measured6.0%Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: math14401459Inkling Small
LMArena Text: mathematical work14511441GLM 5
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index62
Knowledge benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
MMLU Pro86.0%85.6%GLM 5
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.1%83.0%GLM 5
CaseLaw (Vals AI)52.5%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)62.9%69.6%Inkling Small
TaxEval (Vals AI)70.0%75.5%Inkling Small
MortgageTax (Vals AI)Not measured62.3%Only Inkling Small measured
MedQA (Vals AI)94.3%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured37.9%Only Inkling Small measured
SimpleQA VerifiedNot measured19.1%Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: science14601428GLM 5
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14551413GLM 5
LMArena Text: legal and government14531415GLM 5
LMArena Text: business and finance14301413GLM 5
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
Design Arena: websites1247Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: UI components1230Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: game dev1234Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: data viz1228Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: 3D1229Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: all code categories1246Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: SVG1168Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Design Arena: ASCII art1147Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index170
General benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
Vals IndexNot measured27.6%Only Inkling Small measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)Not measured59.4%Only Inkling Small measured
SAGE (Vals AI)Not measured32.7%Only Inkling Small measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)Not measured84.1%Only Inkling Small measured
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured50.0%Only Inkling Small measured
IFBench72.3%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)75.7%75.7%Tie
CL-bench18.7%Not measuredOnly GLM 5 measured
LMArena Text14461413GLM 5
LMArena Text: instruction following14281399GLM 5
LMArena Text: creative writing14381334GLM 5
LMArena VisionNot measured1237Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: English14581421GLM 5
LMArena Text: non-English14301401GLM 5
LMArena Text: Chinese15111464GLM 5
LMArena Text: German14471408GLM 5
LMArena Text: Japanese14161401GLM 5
LMArena Text: Korean14231367GLM 5
LMArena Text: French14561435GLM 5
LMArena Text: Spanish14541422GLM 5
LMArena Text: Russian14361394GLM 5
LMArena Text: Polish14341428GLM 5
LMArena Text: multi-turn14561416GLM 5
LMArena Text: longer queries14461402GLM 5
LMArena Text: writing and language14371357GLM 5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14261352GLM 5
LMArena Vision: EnglishNot measured1243Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: ChineseNot measured1292Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: reading textNot measured1243Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: humorNot measured1207Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: creative writingNot measured1205Only Inkling Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for GLM 5 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkGLM 5Inkling SmallLeader
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

GLM 5$0.0026Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.0010Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

GLM 5$0.060Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.026Fits in one request

Inkling Small costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

GLM 5$0.232Exceeds the context window
Inkling Small$0.102Fits in one request

Inkling 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.

Specifications of GLM 5 and Inkling Small
SpecificationZ.ai GLM 5Thinking Machines Inkling Small
MakerZ.aiThinking Machines
WeightsOpen weightsOpen weights
ReleasedFebruary 11, 2026July 30, 2026
Context window205K524K
Input $/Mtok$1.00$0.45
Output $/Mtok$3.20$1.20
Coding index41.727.3
Independent measurements behind it34
Cost per solved task$0.63$0.16
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is GLM 5 better than Inkling Small for coding?

Pick GLM 5 for coding: it scores 41.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 3 benchmarks against 4. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 2.7x cheaper ($1.20 vs $3.20 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.16 against $0.63).

Which is cheaper, GLM 5 or Inkling Small?

GLM 5 costs $1.00 per million input tokens and $3.20 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, GLM 5 costs $0.63 and Inkling Small $0.16.

Which has the bigger context window, GLM 5 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small, with 524K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks is the GLM 5 vs Inkling Small comparison based on?

48 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GLM 5's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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