ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Gemini 4 Argon vs Inkling Small vs Claude Sonnet 5.5

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 4 Argon 74, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72, Inkling Small 68). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemini 4 Argon

    Released Oct 13, 2026New

    74/100
    • ECI166.1
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 4 Argon

  2. Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI150.5
    • Price$0.58 / $1.44
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling Small

  3. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Released Sep 28, 2026New

    72/100
    • ECI166.7
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 5.5
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 4 Argon 74/100, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, Inkling Small 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 · Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 · Inkling Small 150.5
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 4 Argon and Inkling SmallGemini 4 Argon 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonGemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Claude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 4 ArgonInkling SmallClaude Sonnet 5.5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%967797
Price25%205220
Inputs & features15%1007080
Context window10%616160
Overall100%74/10068/10072/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemini 4 Argon vs Inkling Small vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 4 ArgonGoogleInkling SmallThinking MachinesClaude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)166.1150.5166.7 (best)
ECI rank#7 of 165#58 of 165#5 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions96.4% (best)88.5%95.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics86.0%46.3%88.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics100% (best)90.0%100% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions76.0% (best)19.1%46.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.58 (best)$2.00
Output$10.00$1.44 (best)$10.00
Cached input$0.10 (best)$0.116$0.10 (best)
Blended (3:1)$4.00$0.795 (best)$4.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIOfficial Thinking Machines APIOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoYes
AudioYesYesNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model IDgemini-4-argonthinkingmachines/Inkling-Smallclaude-sonnet-5-5
API providers241234 (best)
ReleasedOct 13, 2026Jul 30, 2026Sep 28, 2026
Knowledge cutoffMar 2026—Jun 2026
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemini 4 Argon$40.00
  • Inkling Small$8.68
  • Claude Sonnet 5.5$40.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 4 Argon, Inkling Small or Claude Sonnet 5.5?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 4 Argon 74/100, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, Inkling Small 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Argon, Inkling Small or Claude Sonnet 5.5?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price); Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (5× as much) and $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 (#5 of 165), Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 (#7 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (163.6–171.3 vs 163.1–170.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 95.6%, Inkling Small 88.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Gemini 4 Argon 86.0%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 4 Argon 100%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 4 Argon 76.0%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%, Inkling Small 19.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 4 Argon, Inkling Small and Claude Sonnet 5.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 4 Argon and Inkling Small have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 5.5. Maximum output per response: Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Claude Sonnet 5.5 up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 4 Argon accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Gemini 4 Argon handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 4 Argon and Claude Sonnet 5.5 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 4 Argon is the newest, released Oct 13, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5 came out Sep 28, 2026; Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 4 Argon Mar 2026, Claude Sonnet 5.5 Jun 2026.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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