Muse Ember vs Inkling Small
Muse Ember leads Inkling Small on coding, 64.9 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Muse Ember costs 2.4x less per output token ($0.50 vs $1.20 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 14 benchmarks have a result for both.
Muse Ember or Inkling Small: which to pick
Pick Muse Ember for coding: it scores 64.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 3 benchmarks against 4.
Inkling Small is neither cheaper nor larger in context, and leads no benchmark both models were measured on.
- Shared results
- 14
- Muse Ember only
- 1
- Inkling Small only
- 79
- 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 27.3.
3 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a AA Intelligence Index result, 12.9.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a AA Agentic Index result, 23.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling Small has a GPQA Diamond result, 83.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling Small has a MMLU Pro result, 85.6%.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Muse Ember
Muse Ember leads, 60.5% against 27.6%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Muse Ember
Muse Ember takes 1.05M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Muse Ember
Muse Ember $0.0003, 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
- Muse Ember 64.9 from 3 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 39.4 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Muse Ember 83.7% against Inkling Small 19.1%, 64.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Muse Ember $0.50 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.4x apart.
- Context window
- Muse Ember takes 1.05M 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 | Muse Ember | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 7 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 3 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 14 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index70
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1609 | 1408 | Muse Ember |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 52.9 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 82.2% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 39.4% | 0.0% | Muse Ember |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 83.7% | 19.1% | Muse Ember |
| 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 |
| SciCode | Not measured | 49.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.9% | 1.0% | Muse Ember |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 27.2% | 4.8% | Muse Ember |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1451 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1616 | 1397 | Muse Ember |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1621 | 1396 | Muse Ember |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1410 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| GameBench 2 | Not measured | 33.1 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | Not measured | 0.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 12.9 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 150.8 | Only Inkling Small measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | 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) | 38.2% | 15.4% | Muse Ember |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 49.0% | 25.5% | Muse Ember |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 25.0% | 2.9% | Muse Ember |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| APEX-Agents | 64.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Ember measured |
| MCP Atlas | Not measured | 79.2% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Toolathlon-Verified | Not measured | 54.4% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.1% | 12.1% | Muse Ember |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.0% | 18.5% | Muse Ember |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 | Not measured | 1425 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1440 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1253 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1252 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 90.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 | Not measured | 1459 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1437 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 37.9% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| AA-Omniscience | 7.7 | -9.5 | Muse Ember |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1414 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | Inkling 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 Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 60.5% | 27.6% | Muse Ember |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.4% | 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 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 75.7% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| GDPval-AA | Not measured | 1133 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1414 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1402 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1337 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1236 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1421 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1402 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1462 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1397 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1384 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1438 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1431 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1397 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1427 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1417 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1359 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1353 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1243 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1291 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1242 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1199 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1197 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Ember | 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
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 Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | November 9, 2026 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.10 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.50 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 64.9 | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Muse Ember better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick Muse Ember for coding: it scores 64.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small, though on 3 benchmarks against 4. Inkling Small is neither cheaper nor larger in context, and leads no benchmark both models were measured on.
Which is cheaper, Muse Ember or Inkling Small?
Muse Ember costs $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 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, Muse Ember or Inkling Small?
Muse Ember, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the Muse Ember vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
14 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Muse Ember'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.