Model comparison

Inkling vs Yi-Lightning

Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Inkling Thinking Machines Lab

44.1

Rank #75 Confirmed

Yi-Lightning 01.AI

36.5

Rank #206 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling scores higher in 7 categories and Yi-Lightning in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Inkling leads 55.2 to 34.8.
  • Inkling has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Inkling and Yi-Lightning specifications
InklingYi-Lightning
ProviderThinking Machines Lab01.AI
Noometry Index44.136.5
Released2026-07-152024-12-02
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window66K—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$1.87—
Output $ / M tokens$4.68—
Results tracked4118

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Category by category

Coding Inkling leads

Inkling: 34.1 (#229), Yi-Lightning: 27.0 (#315)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Coding14631313
FrontierCode14%—
Aider Polyglot—12.9%
LMArena WebDev1412—
FrontierSWE4.1%—
SciCode47%—
WeirdML32.3%—
ALE-Bench946—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Inkling: 29.5 (#76), Yi-Lightning: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
APEX-Agents33.8%—
τ²-bench Banking25%—

Reasoning Inkling leads

Inkling: 40.6 (#48), Yi-Lightning: 24.9 (#137)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Hard Prompts14521302
ARC-AGI-236.5%—
SimpleBench50%—
ARC-AGI-179.5%—
CritPt5.4%—
Chess Puzzles21%—
DTBench87.5%—
LMCA37.6%—
Epoch Capabilities Index148.6—

Math Yi-Lightning leads

Inkling: 31.2 (#198), Yi-Lightning: 33.5 (#173)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Math14821300
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)33.3%—
FrontierMath Tier 44.9%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
ProofBench0%—

Knowledge Inkling leads

Inkling: 55.2 (#44), Yi-Lightning: 34.8 (#182)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Expert14681286
GPQA Diamond88.3%—
SimpleQA Verified40.3%—

Multilingual Inkling leads

Inkling: 54.2 (#49), Yi-Lightning: 42.4 (#191)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Non-English14341269
LMArena Chinese14951320
LMArena French14531304
LMArena German14561267
LMArena Japanese14281228
LMArena Korean14011192
LMArena Russian14301255
LMArena Spanish14421315

Instruction Following Inkling leads

Inkling: 75.3 (#65), Yi-Lightning: 67.6 (#191)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Instruction Following14271278

Long Context Inkling leads

Inkling: 43.9 (#79), Yi-Lightning: 39.4 (#176)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Longer Query14361297

Writing & Preference Inkling leads

Inkling: 65.5 (#48), Yi-Lightning: 50.4 (#178)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkInklingYi-Lightning
LMArena Text14431302
LMArena Creative Writing13901280
LMArena Multi-Turn14361311
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1611—
EQ-Bench 41226—

Frequently asked questions

Is Inkling better than Yi-Lightning?

Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.

Is Inkling or Yi-Lightning better for coding?

Inkling scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.1 versus 27.0 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Inkling and Yi-Lightning share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling has 41 scored results on Noometry and Yi-Lightning has 18.

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