ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Inkling vs o3

Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling 59, o3 58). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Thinking Machines

    Inkling

    Released Jul 15, 2026

    59/100
    • ECI148.6
    • Price$3.74 / $9.36
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling

  2. OpenAI

    o3

    Released Apr 16, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI146.9
    • Price$2.00 / $8.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling 59/100, o3 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling for raw capability and o3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityInklingCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling 148.6 · o3 146.9
  • Lowest priceo3o3 $3.50 · Inkling $5.14 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInklingInkling 1,048,576 · o3 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsInkling: Text, Images, Audio · o3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingInklingPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightInklingo3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7674
Price25%1624
Inputs & features15%7080
Context window10%6132
Overall100%59/10058/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Inkling vs o3 specifications side by side
SpecificationInklingThinking Machineso3OpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)148.6 (best)146.9
ECI rank#57 of 148 (best)#63 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.3% (best)81.8%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics33.3%33.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics88.9% (best)84.4%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—62.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions40.3%49.4% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$3.74$2.00 (best)
Output$9.36$8.00 (best)
Cached input$0.748$0.50 (best)
Blended (3:1)$5.14$3.50 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Thinking Machines APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output1,048,576 tokens (best)100,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioYesNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model IDthinkingmachines/Inkling:peft:262144o3
API providers23 (best)18
ReleasedJul 15, 2026Apr 16, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—May 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.

  • Inkling$56.12
  • o3$36.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Inkling or o3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling 59/100, o3 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Inkling for raw capability and o3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Inkling or o3?

o3 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $8.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Inkling costs $3.74 input / $9.36 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.50 per million tokens for o3 versus $5.14 for Inkling (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Inkling scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling 148.6 (#57 of 148) and o3 146.9 (#63 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (145.7–150.6 vs 144.9–148.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling 88.3%, o3 81.8%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Inkling 33.3%, o3 33.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Inkling 88.9%, o3 84.4%; SimpleQA Verified — o3 49.4%, Inkling 40.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Inkling 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. Both 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. Maximum output per response: Inkling up to 1,048,576, o3 up to 100,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Inkling accepts text, images and audio; o3 accepts text, images and PDFs. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Inkling publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; o3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Inkling is the newest, released Jul 15, 2026. o3 came out Apr 16, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o3 May 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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