gpt-oss-20b vs Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads gpt-oss-20b on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 25.7 to 10.0, and gpt-oss-20b costs 8.0x less per output token ($0.15 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 41 benchmarks have a result for both.
gpt-oss-20b or Inkling Small: which to pick
Only Inkling Small has a coding score, 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; gpt-oss-20b has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick gpt-oss-20b for output tokens 8.0x cheaper ($0.15 vs $1.20 per million).
- Shared results
- 41
- gpt-oss-20b only
- 19
- Inkling Small only
- 43
- 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
No call
Only Inkling Small has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 25.7 against 10.0.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a AA Agentic Index result, 23.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 83.6% against 68.9%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only gpt-oss-20b has a AIME result, 86.0%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Inkling Small
Inkling Small leads, 85.6% against 71.6%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only gpt-oss-20b has a Design Arena: websites result, 852.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a Vals Index result, 27.6%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling Small
Inkling Small takes 524K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
gpt-oss-20b
gpt-oss-20b $0.0001, Inkling Small $0.0010 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Inkling Small has the number, $0.16.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- gpt-oss-20b not benchmarked, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- General, 24.6 points apart on average over 17 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): gpt-oss-20b 34.7% against Inkling Small 75.7%, 41.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- gpt-oss-20b $0.15 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 8.0x apart.
- Context window
- gpt-oss-20b takes 131K 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.
| Category | gpt-oss-20b | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 7 | ||
| Math | 0 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 8 | ||
| General | 0 | 17 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 41 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1409 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 52.9 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.4% | 85.9% | Inkling Small |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 82.2% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 13.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 9.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 33.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 77.7% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| SciCode | 38.9% | 49.7% | Inkling Small |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 10.6% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 3.4% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| WeirdML | 40.9% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| ALE-Bench | 566.0 | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1307 | 1450 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1311 | 1447 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1399 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1398 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1410 | Only 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 index02
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.0 | 25.7 | Inkling Small |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 137.7 | 150.3 | Inkling Small |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 23.5 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 60.2% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index07
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 68.9% | 83.6% | Inkling Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 68.8% | 89.5% | Inkling Small |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 11.0% | 33.3% | Inkling Small |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 60.8% | 88.5% | Inkling Small |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 84.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 40.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1274 | 1423 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1258 | 1441 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1292 | 1429 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1251 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1257 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 86.0% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 94.2% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 89.0% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| AA Math Index | 89.3 | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.3% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 65.3% | 90.0% | Inkling Small |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 17.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 6.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1317 | 1459 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1305 | 1441 | Inkling Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 71.6% | 85.6% | Inkling Small |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 70.8% | 83.0% | Inkling Small |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 43.8% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 53.1% | 69.6% | Inkling Small |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 63.7% | 75.5% | Inkling Small |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 82.9% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 37.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 74.8% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1296 | 1428 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1310 | 1413 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1280 | 1415 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1284 | 1413 | Inkling Small |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 852 | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 933 | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index017
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 27.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 84.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| IFBench | 65.1% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 34.7% | 75.7% | Inkling Small |
| DTBench | 68.0% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| LMCA | 14.5% | Not measured | Only gpt-oss-20b measured |
| LMArena Text | 1288 | 1413 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1236 | 1399 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1201 | 1334 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1237 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1303 | 1421 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1269 | 1401 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1315 | 1464 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: German | 1255 | 1408 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1244 | 1401 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1236 | 1367 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1435 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1267 | 1422 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1278 | 1394 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1252 | 1428 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1268 | 1416 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1250 | 1402 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1238 | 1357 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1216 | 1352 | Inkling Small |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1292 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1207 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1205 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Inkling 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
gpt-oss-20b costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
gpt-oss-20b costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
gpt-oss-20b 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 | OpenAI gpt-oss-20b | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | August 5, 2025 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 131K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.03 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.15 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is gpt-oss-20b better than Inkling Small for coding?
Only Inkling Small has a coding score, 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; gpt-oss-20b has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick gpt-oss-20b for output tokens 8.0x cheaper ($0.15 vs $1.20 per million).
Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or Inkling Small?
gpt-oss-20b costs $0.03 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling Small only.
Which has the bigger context window, gpt-oss-20b or Inkling Small?
Inkling Small, with 524K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the gpt-oss-20b vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
41 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. gpt-oss-20b's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.