ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Inkling vs Claude Sonnet 4.6

Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Sonnet 4.6 62, Inkling 59). 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. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 4.6

    Released Feb 17, 2026

    62/100
    • ECI152.3
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 4.6

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Claude Sonnet 4.6 62/100, Inkling 59/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 4.6 for raw capability, Inkling on price and Inkling for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 · Inkling 148.6
  • Lowest priceInklingInkling $5.14 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInklingInkling 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsInkling: Text, Images, Audio · Claude Sonnet 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingInklingPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightInklingClaude Sonnet 4.6
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7681
Price25%1613
Inputs & features15%7080
Context window10%6160
Overall100%59/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Inkling vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationInklingThinking MachinesClaude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)148.6152.3 (best)
ECI rank#57 of 148#40 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.3% (best)87.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics33.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics88.9% (best)85.8%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—75.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions40.3% (best)35.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$3.74$3.00 (best)
Output$9.36 (best)$15.00
Cached input$0.748$0.30 (best)
Blended (3:1)$5.14 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Thinking Machines APIOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output1,048,576 tokens (best)64,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioYesNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model IDthinkingmachines/Inkling:peft:262144claude-sonnet-4-6
API providers2341 (best)
ReleasedJul 15, 2026Feb 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Aug 31, 2025
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
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Inkling or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Claude Sonnet 4.6 62/100, Inkling 59/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 4.6 for raw capability, Inkling on price and Inkling for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Inkling or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Inkling is cheaper at $3.74 input / $9.36 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $5.14 per million tokens for Inkling versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148) and Inkling 148.6 (#57 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (149.6–154.7 vs 145.7–150.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling 88.3%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Inkling 88.9%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SimpleQA Verified — Inkling 40.3%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%.

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, Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 4.6. Maximum output per response: Inkling up to 1,048,576, Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Inkling accepts text, images and audio; Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Inkling is the newest, released Jul 15, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 4.6 Aug 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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