Inkling vs Claude Opus 4.1
Inkling comes out ahead, 59 to 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
AnthropicClaude Opus 4.1
49/100- ECI144.1
- Price$15.00 / $75.00
- Context200K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Inkling is our pick
Inkling is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on capability, price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityInklingCapabilities Index (ECI): Inkling 148.6 · Claude Opus 4.1 144.1
- Lowest priceInklingInkling $5.14 · Claude Opus 4.1 $30.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInklingInkling 1,048,576 · Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsInkling: Text, Images, Audio · Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingInklingPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Inkling | Claude Opus 4.1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 76 | 71 |
| Price | 25% | 16 | 0 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 59/100 | 49/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | InklingThinking Machines | Claude Opus 4.1Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 148.6 (best) | 144.1 |
| ECI rank | #57 of 148 (best) | #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) | $15.00 |
| Output | $9.36 (best) | $75.00 |
| Cached input | $0.748 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $5.14 (best) | $30.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Thinking Machines API | Median of 14 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes |
| Audio | Yes | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | thinkingmachines/Inkling:peft:262144 | — |
| API providers | 23 (best) | 14 |
| Released | Jul 15, 2026 | Aug 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | 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
- Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Inkling or Claude Opus 4.1?
Inkling is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on capability, price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Inkling 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). 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).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Inkling scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Inkling 148.6 (#57 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 141.6–146.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling 88.3%, Claude Opus 4.1 77.3%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Inkling 33.3%, Claude Opus 4.1 12.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Inkling 88.9%, Claude Opus 4.1 68.9%.
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 Claude Opus 4.1. Maximum output per response: Inkling up to 1,048,576, Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Inkling accepts text, images and audio; Claude Opus 4.1 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; 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. Knowledge cutoff: 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.
Related comparisons
- Add Qwen3.6 Max PreviewThree-way comparison
- Inkling vs Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 149.2
- Inkling vs Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic · ECI 152.3
- Inkling vs GPT-5.1OpenAI · ECI 149.7
- Inkling vs GLM-5.1Z.ai (Zhipu) · ECI 149.9
- Claude Opus 4.1 vs o3-proOpenAI · ECI 147.4
- Claude Opus 4.1 vs Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle · ECI 145.3
