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Kimi K2.6 vs Inkling

Kimi K2.6 leads Inkling on coding, 52.1 to 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, at about the same output price ($4.00 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 81 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Kimi K2.6 Replace Inkling
Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI
Coding
52.1
Overall
60.5
Output $/M
$4.00
65
T InklingThinking Machines
Coding
31.5
Overall
46.5
Output $/M
$4.05
15
vs boards won of 81 shared, 1 tied

Kimi K2.6 or Inkling: which to pick

Pick Kimi K2.6 for coding: it scores 52.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 3 benchmarks against 6.

Pick Inkling for a larger context window (524K against 262K tokens) and work measured by SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) or AA Agentic Index, where it leads.

Model AKimi K2.6Moonshot AI52.1/1003 independent benchmarks$0.35 per solved taskModel BInklingThinking Machines31.5/1006 independent benchmarks$0.76 per solved task
Shared results
81
Kimi K2.6 only
28
Inkling only
21
Like-for-like categories
8 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
Kimi K2.6 52.1 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
Widest category
Math, 12.0 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3: Kimi K2.6 57.2% against Inkling 33.3%, 23.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Kimi K2.6 $4.00 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 1.0x apart.
Context window
Kimi K2.6 takes 262K tokens, Inkling 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
CategoryKimi K2.6BarsInklingTies
Coding1311 tie
Intelligence20
Agentic work24
Reasoning81
Math51
Knowledge74
Web design80
General204
All shared boards65151 tie
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index131
Coding benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
LiveBench codingNot measured64.0%Only Inkling measured
LMArena WebDev15091414Kimi K2.6
AA Coding Index61.852.1Kimi K2.6
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)86.8%85.5%Kimi K2.6
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)76.2%77.6%Inkling
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured0.5%Only Inkling measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)37.9%19.2%Kimi K2.6
Code migration (Vals AI)27.8%11.8%Kimi K2.6
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%0.0%Tie
IOI (Vals AI)Not measured14.9%Only Inkling measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)53.6%47.6%Kimi K2.6
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)Not measured7.3%Only Inkling measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)Not measured26.1%Only Inkling measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured66.8%Only Inkling measured
SciCode51.5%47.0%Kimi K2.6
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)43.9%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
FrontierCodeNot measured14.0%Only Inkling measured
FrontierSWENot measured4.1%Only Inkling measured
WeirdML55.9%32.3%Kimi K2.6
ALE-Bench1092.7946.0Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: coding14891466Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: software and IT14841465Kimi K2.6
LMArena WebDev: React15051404Kimi K2.6
LMArena WebDev: HTML14851399Kimi K2.6
LMArena WebDev: from an image1521Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Intelligence benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
AA Intelligence Index27.025.0Kimi K2.6
Epoch Capabilities Index150.9148.4Kimi K2.6
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index24
Agentic work benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
AA Agentic Index20.522.5Inkling
Design Arena: agents building web apps12681196Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1155Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1156Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1161Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1120Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building games1141Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: HTML slides1135Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides1103Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets1276Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LiveBench researchNot measured59.9%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench browserNot measured16.0%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench long agenticNot measured14.1%Only Inkling measured
SREBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Inkling measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)44.9%46.6%Inkling
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)12.4%15.3%Inkling
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)15.9%28.4%Inkling
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured3.8%Only Inkling measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)57.9%38.4%Kimi K2.6
τ²-Bench Telecom95.9%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
APEX-AgentsNot measured33.8%Only Inkling measured
OSWorld 2.04.6%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Vending-Bench 2$6,205Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index81
Reasoning benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
GPQA Diamond89.1%87.1%Kimi K2.6
LiveBench reasoningNot measured78.3%Only Inkling measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)86.3%78.5%Kimi K2.6
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)91.1%87.2%Kimi K2.6
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)37.5%31.9%Kimi K2.6
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)90.8%88.3%Kimi K2.6
ARC-AGINot measured79.5%Only Inkling measured
ARC-AGI-2Not measured36.5%Only Inkling measured
SimpleBenchNot measured50.0%Only Inkling measured
Chess puzzles20.0%21.0%Inkling
Mystery game puzzles18.0%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
EBR-bench2.4%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14701451Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: expert14911466Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14711448Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: diagrams1298Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Vision: homework1310Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51
Math benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
OTIS Mock AIME96.1%88.9%Kimi K2.6
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 357.2%33.3%Kimi K2.6
FrontierMath, tier 425.6%4.9%Kimi K2.6
ProofBench16.0%0.0%Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: math14741479Inkling
LMArena Text: mathematical work14801460Kimi K2.6
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index74
Knowledge benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
MMLU Pro87.6%86.3%Kimi K2.6
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.7%83.0%Kimi K2.6
CaseLaw (Vals AI)61.2%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)66.7%68.6%Inkling
TaxEval (Vals AI)74.7%75.3%Inkling
MortgageTax (Vals AI)65.8%64.0%Kimi K2.6
MedCode (Vals AI)40.1%41.2%Inkling
SimpleQA Verified34.9%40.3%Inkling
LMArena Text: science14681455Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14571447Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: legal and government14621448Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: business and finance14451438Kimi K2.6
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index80
Web design benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
Design Arena: websites12681224Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: UI components12631198Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: game dev12501165Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: data viz12491156Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: 3D12671160Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: all code categories12711205Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: SVG11811108Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: ASCII art11651089Kimi K2.6
LiveBench designNot measured58.3%Only Inkling measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index204
General benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
Vals IndexNot measured29.0%Only Inkling measured
LiveBench data analysisNot measured72.8%Only Inkling measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)56.6%58.5%Inkling
SAGE (Vals AI)50.2%36.5%Kimi K2.6
MedScribe (Vals AI)78.2%85.4%Inkling
Vals Multimodal Index56.4%49.4%Kimi K2.6
IFBench76.0%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)81.0%77.3%Kimi K2.6
DTBench90.9%87.5%Kimi K2.6
LMCA37.3%37.6%Inkling
Furniture assembly21.7%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
ExploitBench18.4%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text14551442Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: instruction following14511425Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: creative writing14341390Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision1282Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text: English14601442Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: non-English14461434Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Chinese15201493Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: German14511445Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Japanese14431429Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Korean14271403Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: French14711455Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Spanish14641449Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Russian14461430Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Polish14381450Inkling
LMArena Text: multi-turn14531437Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: longer queries14681435Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: writing and language14391404Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14281394Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: English1287Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese1346Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Vision: reading text1291Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Vision: humor1280Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing1273Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Document1451Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
BenchmarkKimi K2.6InklingLeader
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

Kimi K2.6$0.0029Fits in one request
Inkling$0.0030Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Kimi K2.6$0.059Fits in one request
Inkling$0.061Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Kimi K2.6$0.230Fits in one request
Inkling$0.235Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 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 Kimi K2.6 and Inkling
SpecificationMoonshotAI Kimi K2.6Thinking Machines Inkling
MakerMoonshot AIThinking Machines
WeightsOpen weightsOpen weights
ReleasedApril 20, 2026July 17, 2026
Context window262K524K
Input $/Mtok$0.95$0.975
Output $/Mtok$4.00$4.05
Coding index52.131.5
Independent measurements behind it36
Cost per solved task$0.35$0.76
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Kimi K2.6 better than Inkling for coding?

Pick Kimi K2.6 for coding: it scores 52.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 31.5 for Inkling, though on 3 benchmarks against 6. Pick Inkling for a larger context window (524K against 262K tokens) and work measured by SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) or AA Agentic Index, where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Inkling?

Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 per million input tokens and $4.00 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Kimi K2.6 costs $0.35 and Inkling $0.76.

Which has the bigger context window, Kimi K2.6 or Inkling?

Inkling, with 524K tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks is the Kimi K2.6 vs Inkling comparison based on?

81 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Kimi K2.6's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/kimi-k2-6-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling" title="Kimi K2.6 vs Inkling, LLMBenchmark.ai" width="100%" height="360" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/kimi-k2-6-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling">LLMBenchmark.ai, Kimi K2.6 vs Inkling</a></p>