Model comparison

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Inkling

Claude Opus 4.8 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.7 to 44.1 on the Noometry Index. Inkling costs 3.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Opus 4.8's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 40 shared benchmarks.

Claude Opus 4.8 Anthropic

60.7

Rank #13 Confirmed

Inkling Thinking Machines Lab

44.1

Rank #80 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 40 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Opus 4.8 scores higher in 9 categories and Inkling in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Claude Opus 4.8 leads 78.4 to 31.3.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is ProofBench: 69% for Claude Opus 4.8 and 0% for Inkling.
  • Inkling is cheaper at $1.87 / $4.68 per million input/output tokens, against $5 / $25 for Claude Opus 4.8.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 66K.
  • Inkling has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Claude Opus 4.8 and Inkling specifications
Claude Opus 4.8Inkling
ProviderAnthropicThinking Machines Lab
Noometry Index60.744.1
Released2026-05-282026-07-15
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1M66K
Max output128K66K
Input $ / M tokens$5$1.87
Output $ / M tokens$25$4.68
Results tracked6541

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Category by category

Coding Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 59.9 (#12), Inkling: 34.5 (#234)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
FrontierCode46.5%14%
LMArena WebDev15561413
SciCode53.5%47%
WeirdML82.9%32.3%
LMArena Coding14901464
ALE-Bench1,564946
DeepSWE59%—
FrontierSWE—4.1%
GSO47.1%—

Agentic & Tool Use Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 47.6 (#11), Inkling: 29.6 (#85)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
APEX-Agents48.9%33.8%
τ²-bench Banking39.7%25%
OSWorld 2.020.6%—
Remote Labor Index8.3%—
DeepResearch Bench50.2%—
PostTrainBench33.8%—
GBAEval70.9%—
GDP.pdf24%—
LMArena Search1204—
Vending-Bench 25,787—

Reasoning Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 64.7 (#16), Inkling: 40.4 (#56)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
ARC-AGI-272.1%36.5%
SimpleBench64.8%50%
ARC-AGI-192.5%79.5%
CritPt20.9%5.4%
Chess Puzzles34%21%
LMArena Hard Prompts14821451
DTBench94.9%87.5%
LMCA57.5%37.6%
Epoch Capabilities Index158.21148.54
Kagi LLM Benchmark88.8%—
NYT Connections (extended)91.1%—
EnigmaEval23.5%—
EBR-Bench28.6%—
Mystery Game Puzzles36%—
Surface Evolver Bench87.5%—
Bench to the Future 30.14—
ForecastBench59.9—

Math Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 78.4 (#13), Inkling: 31.3 (#225)

Knowledge Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 61.3 (#29), Inkling: 55.1 (#49)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
GPQA Diamond91%88.3%
SimpleQA Verified53%40.3%
LMArena Expert15021465

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Opus 4.8: 42.9 (#26), Inkling: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
LMArena Vision1294—
Blueprint-Bench 214.5%—
Furniture Assembly42.5%—
LMArena Document1475—

Multilingual Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 55.2 (#33), Inkling: 54.0 (#52)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
LMArena Non-English14501434
LMArena Chinese15071490
LMArena French14811458
LMArena German14721446
LMArena Japanese14401429
LMArena Korean14321404
LMArena Russian14741429
LMArena Spanish14661448

Instruction Following Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 77.4 (#24), Inkling: 75.1 (#71)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
LMArena Instruction Following14761426

Long Context Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 45.4 (#35), Inkling: 43.8 (#86)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
LMArena Longer Query14831434

Writing & Preference Claude Opus 4.8 leads

Claude Opus 4.8: 72.0 (#16), Inkling: 65.2 (#51)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.8Inkling
LMArena Text14611441
LMArena Creative Writing14541387
EQ-Bench Creative Writing18401611
EQ-Bench 412811226
LMArena Multi-Turn14761436

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Opus 4.8 better than Inkling?

Claude Opus 4.8 is the stronger model overall, scoring 60.7 to 44.1 on the Noometry Index. Inkling costs 3.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Opus 4.8's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Inkling?

Inkling is cheaper. It lists at $1.87 per million input tokens and $4.68 per million output tokens; Claude Opus 4.8 lists at $5 and $25.

Is Claude Opus 4.8 or Inkling better for coding?

Claude Opus 4.8 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.9 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Opus 4.8 does, with 1M tokens against 66K.

How many benchmarks do Claude Opus 4.8 and Inkling share?

40 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Opus 4.8 has 65 scored results on Noometry and Inkling has 41.

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