ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Claude Haiku 3.5 vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small comes out ahead, 68 to 46 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3.5

    Released Oct 22, 2024

    46/100
    • ECI127.0
    • Price$0.80 / $4.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3.5
  2. Our pick

    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. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Inkling Small is our pick

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Claude Haiku 3.5 (46). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInkling SmallCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.5 · Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Claude Haiku 3.5 $1.60 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling SmallInkling Small 1,048,576 · Claude Haiku 3.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsClaude Haiku 3.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 3.5Inkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%4877
Price25%3852
Inputs & features15%6070
Context window10%3261
Overall100%46/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Haiku 3.5 vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 3.5AnthropicInkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.0150.5 (best)
ECI rank#147 of 165#58 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions38.1%88.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics4.3%90.0% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.80$0.58 (best)
Output$4.00$1.44 (best)
Cached input—$0.116
Blended (3:1)$1.60$0.795 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 3 providersOfficial Thinking Machines API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoYes
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model ID—thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small
API providers412 (best)
ReleasedOct 22, 2024Jul 30, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJul 31, 2024—
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.

  • Claude Haiku 3.5$16.00
  • Inkling Small$8.68
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 3.5 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Claude Haiku 3.5 (46). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 3.5 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Claude Haiku 3.5 costs $0.80 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $1.60 for Claude Haiku 3.5 (2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling Small scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165) and Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0 (#147 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.7–152.4 vs 121.4–129.2), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling Small 88.5%, Claude Haiku 3.5 38.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Inkling Small 90.0%, Claude Haiku 3.5 4.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 3.5 and Inkling Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Inkling Small leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Inkling Small has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 3.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 3.5 up to 8,192, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 3.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3.5 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Inkling Small is the newest, released Jul 30, 2026. Claude Haiku 3.5 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3.5 Jul 31, 2024.

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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