Muse Ember vs Inkling 2 Small
Muse Ember leads Inkling 2 Small on coding, 64.9 to 48.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Muse Ember costs 2.0x less per output token ($0.50 vs $1.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 15 benchmarks have a result for both.
Muse Ember or Inkling 2 Small: which to pick
Pick Muse Ember for coding: it scores 64.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small.
Pick Inkling 2 Small for work measured by LMArena WebDev or LMArena WebDev: React, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 15
- Muse Ember only
- 0
- Inkling 2 Small only
- 36
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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
Muse Ember
Muse Ember scores 64.9 against 48.9.
3 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Inkling 2 Small has a AA Intelligence Index result, 30.6.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Muse Ember
Muse Ember leads, 60.5% 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
Muse Ember
Muse Ember $0.0003, Inkling 2 Small $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Muse Ember 64.9 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling 2 Small 48.9 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 10.4 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI): Muse Ember 39.4% against Inkling 2 Small 12.6%, 35.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Muse Ember $0.50 against Inkling 2 Small $1.00 per million output tokens, 2.0x 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 | Muse Ember | Bars | Inkling 2 Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 4 | 3 | ||
| Agentic work | 3 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 9 | 6 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index43
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1609 | 1647 | Inkling 2 Small |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 39.4% | 12.6% | Muse Ember |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 83.7% | 81.5% | Muse Ember |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 43.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 52.3% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.9% | 13.1% | Muse Ember |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 27.2% | 25.4% | Muse Ember |
| 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 | 1616 | 1660 | Inkling 2 Small |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1621 | 1661 | Inkling 2 Small |
| SWE-Bench Pro V2 | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | 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 index31
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 1.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 38.2% | 38.9% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 49.0% | 46.6% | Muse Ember |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 25.0% | 21.7% | Muse Ember |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.0% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 32.7% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| APEX-Agents | 64.3% | 46.8% | Muse Ember |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 25.2% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 44.1% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.1% | 28.7% | Inkling 2 Small |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.0% | 35.0% | Muse Ember |
| 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 | Muse Ember | 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 | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | 7.7 | 16.1 | Inkling 2 Small |
| 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 | Muse Ember | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling 2 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 60.5% | 56.1% | Muse Ember |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Inkling 2 Small measured |
| 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 35 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | 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
Muse Ember costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Muse Ember costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Muse Ember 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 | Meta Muse Ember | Thinking Machines Inkling 2 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | November 9, 2026 | November 9, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.10 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 64.9 | 48.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Muse Ember better than Inkling 2 Small for coding?
Pick Muse Ember for coding: it scores 64.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 48.9 for Inkling 2 Small. Pick Inkling 2 Small for work measured by LMArena WebDev or LMArena WebDev: React, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Muse Ember or Inkling 2 Small?
Muse Ember costs $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 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, Muse Ember or Inkling 2 Small?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Muse Ember vs Inkling 2 Small comparison based on?
15 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Muse Ember's coding index rests on 3 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.