ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Inkling Small vs Gemini 4 Argon

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 4 Argon 74, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72, Inkling Small 68). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Released Sep 28, 2026New

    72/100
    • ECI166.7
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 5.5

  2. 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. Google

    Gemini 4 Argon

    Released Oct 13, 2026New

    74/100
    • ECI166.1
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 4 Argon
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 4 Argon 74/100, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, Inkling Small 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 · Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 · Inkling Small 150.5
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $4.00 · Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextInkling Small and Gemini 4 ArgonInkling Small 1,048,576 · Gemini 4 Argon 1,048,576 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonClaude Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Gemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Sonnet 5.5Inkling SmallGemini 4 Argon
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%977796
Price25%205220
Inputs & features15%8070100
Context window10%606161
Overall100%72/10068/10074/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Inkling Small vs Gemini 4 Argon specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Sonnet 5.5AnthropicInkling SmallThinking MachinesGemini 4 ArgonGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)166.7 (best)150.5166.1
ECI rank#5 of 165 (best)#58 of 165#7 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions95.6%88.5%96.4% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics88.8% (best)46.3%86.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics100% (best)90.0%100% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions46.5%19.1%76.0% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.58 (best)$2.00
Output$10.00$1.44 (best)$10.00
Cached input$0.10 (best)$0.116$0.10 (best)
Blended (3:1)$4.00$0.795 (best)$4.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Thinking Machines APIOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output128,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoYes
AudioNoYesYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model IDclaude-sonnet-5-5thinkingmachines/Inkling-Smallgemini-4-argon
API providers34 (best)1224
ReleasedSep 28, 2026Jul 30, 2026Oct 13, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJun 2026—Mar 2026
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 Sonnet 5.5$40.00
  • Inkling Small$8.68
  • Gemini 4 Argon$40.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Sonnet 5.5, Inkling Small or Gemini 4 Argon?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 4 Argon 74/100, Claude Sonnet 5.5 72/100, Inkling Small 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5.5 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Inkling Small or Gemini 4 Argon?

Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (5× as much) and $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 (#5 of 165), Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 (#7 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (163.6–171.3 vs 163.1–170.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 95.6%, Inkling Small 88.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Gemini 4 Argon 86.0%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%, Gemini 4 Argon 100%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 4 Argon 76.0%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%, Inkling Small 19.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 5.5, Inkling Small and Gemini 4 Argon yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5.5 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 Small and Gemini 4 Argon have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 5.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 5.5 up to 128,000, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Gemini 4 Argon accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 4 Argon handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 4 Argon is the newest, released Oct 13, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5 came out Sep 28, 2026; Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 5.5 Jun 2026, Gemini 4 Argon Mar 2026.

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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