Muse Spark Open vs Inkling Small
Muse Spark Open leads Inkling Small on coding, 47.4 to 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Inkling Small costs 3.5x less per output token ($1.20 vs $4.25 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 17 benchmarks have a result for both.
Muse Spark Open or Inkling Small: which to pick
Pick Muse Spark Open for coding: it scores 47.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small.
Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 3.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $4.25 per million) and work measured by GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 17
- Muse Spark Open only
- 11
- Inkling Small only
- 67
- 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 Spark Open
Muse Spark Open scores 47.4 against 27.3.
4 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Inkling Small has a AA Intelligence Index result, 25.7.
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
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Muse Spark Open has a Design Arena: websites result, 1310.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
Muse Spark Open
Muse Spark Open leads, 48.6% against 27.6%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Muse Spark Open
Muse Spark Open takes 1.05M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Inkling Small
Muse Spark Open $0.0034, 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 Spark Open 47.4 from 4 benchmarks, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 19.6 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Muse Spark Open 76.2% against Inkling Small 19.1%, 57.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Muse Spark Open $4.25 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 3.5x apart.
- Context window
- Muse Spark Open 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 Spark Open | Bars | Inkling Small | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 7 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 5 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 1 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 16 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index70
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 73.6% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1528 | 1409 | Muse Spark Open |
| 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) | 6.6% | 0.0% | Muse Spark Open |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 76.2% | 19.1% | Muse Spark Open |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 21.2% | 13.7% | Muse Spark Open |
| 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 | 58.4% | 49.7% | Muse Spark Open |
| ALE-Bench | 1590.1 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1450 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1447 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1529 | 1399 | Muse Spark Open |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1495 | 1398 | Muse Spark Open |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1410 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 25.7 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 155.1 | 150.3 | Muse Spark Open |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 23.5 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveBench research | 80.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| LiveBench browser | 36.0% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 18.9% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 61.3% | 41.3% | Muse Spark Open |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 26.3% | 15.4% | Muse Spark Open |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 38.5% | 25.5% | Muse Spark Open |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 25.0% | 2.9% | Muse Spark Open |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 53.7% | 31.8% | Muse Spark Open |
| APEX-Agents | 33.4% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 73.7% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.0% | 89.5% | Inkling Small |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.9% | 33.3% | Muse Spark Open |
| 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 | 1423 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1441 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | 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 | 1441 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | 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 |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 19.1% | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1428 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1415 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1310 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1282 | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| LiveBench design | 60.3% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | Inkling Small | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 48.6% | 27.6% | Muse Spark Open |
| LiveBench data analysis | 60.2% | Not measured | Only Muse Spark Open 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 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.3% | 75.7% | Muse Spark Open |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1413 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1399 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1334 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1237 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1421 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1401 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1464 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1408 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1401 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1367 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1435 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1422 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1394 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1428 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1416 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1402 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1357 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1352 | Only Inkling Small measured |
| 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 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Muse Spark Open | 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
Inkling Small costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Inkling Small costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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.
| Specification | Meta Muse Spark Open | Thinking Machines Inkling Small |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | October 15, 2026 | July 30, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.25 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $4.25 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 47.4 | 27.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.16 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Muse Spark Open better than Inkling Small for coding?
Pick Muse Spark Open for coding: it scores 47.4 on the Vibe Coding Index against 27.3 for Inkling Small. Pick Inkling Small for output tokens 3.5x cheaper ($1.20 vs $4.25 per million) and work measured by GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Muse Spark Open or Inkling Small?
Muse Spark Open costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $4.25 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 Spark Open or Inkling Small?
Muse Spark Open, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.
How many benchmarks is the Muse Spark Open vs Inkling Small comparison based on?
17 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Muse Spark Open's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.