Inkling vs o3-pro vs Claude Opus 4.1
Inkling comes out ahead, 59 to 51 and 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Thinking MachinesInkling
59/100- ECI148.6
- Price$3.74 / $9.36
- Context1.05M
OpenAIo3-pro
51/100- ECI147.4
- Price$20.00 / $80.00
- Context200K
AnthropicClaude Opus 4.1
49/100- ECI144.1
- Price$15.00 / $75.00
- Context200K
Inkling is our pick
Inkling is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against o3-pro (51) and Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityInklingCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling 148.6 · o3-pro 147.4 · Claude Opus 4.1 144.1
- Lowest priceInklingInkling $5.14 · Claude Opus 4.1 $30.00 · o3-pro $35.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInklingInkling 1,048,576 · o3-pro 200,000 · Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsInkling and Claude Opus 4.1Inkling: Text, Images, Audio · o3-pro: Text, Images · Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingInklingPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Inkling | o3-pro | Claude Opus 4.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 76 | 75 | 71 |
| Price | 25% | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 32 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 59/100 | 51/100 | 49/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | InklingThinking Machines | o3-proOpenAI | Claude Opus 4.1Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 148.6 (best) | 147.4 | 144.1 |
| ECI rank | #57 of 148 (best) | #60 of 148 | #81 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 88.3% (best) | — | 77.3% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 33.3% (best) | — | 12.6% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 88.9% (best) | — | 68.9% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | — | 73.4% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 40.3% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $3.74 (best) | $20.00 | $15.00 |
| Output | $9.36 (best) | $80.00 | $75.00 |
| Cached input | $0.748 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $5.14 (best) | $35.00 | $30.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Thinking Machines API | Official OpenAI API | Median of 14 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 100,000 tokens | 32,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | thinkingmachines/Inkling:peft:262144 | o3-pro | — |
| API providers | 23 (best) | 6 | 14 |
| Released | Jul 15, 2026 | Jun 10, 2025 | Aug 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | May 2024 | Mar 31, 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Inkling$56.12
- o3-pro$360.00
- Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Inkling, o3-pro or Claude Opus 4.1?
Inkling is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against o3-pro (51) and Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Inkling, o3-pro or Claude Opus 4.1?
Inkling is cheaper at $3.74 input / $9.36 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Claude Opus 4.1 costs $15.00 input / $75.00 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers); o3-pro costs $20.00 input / $80.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $5.14 per million tokens for Inkling versus $30.00 for Claude Opus 4.1 (5.8× as much) and $35.00 for o3-pro (6.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Inkling scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling 148.6 (#57 of 148), o3-pro 147.4 (#60 of 148) and Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 (#81 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (145.7–150.6 vs 145.8–149.7), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling and o3-pro yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Inkling 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?
Inkling has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 200,000 for o3-pro and 200,000 for Claude Opus 4.1. Maximum output per response: Inkling up to 1,048,576, o3-pro up to 100,000, Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Inkling accepts text, images and audio; o3-pro accepts text and images; Claude Opus 4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs. Inkling handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; o3-pro and Claude Opus 4.1 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Inkling is the newest, released Jul 15, 2026. Claude Opus 4.1 came out Aug 5, 2025; o3-pro came out Jun 10, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o3-pro May 2024, Claude Opus 4.1 Mar 31, 2025.
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 Oct 4, 2026.
