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Model comparison

Claude Fable 5 vs Inkling

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 4 shared benchmark results across 2 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

83.6/100
Margin
14.6pts
← winning
Thinking Machines Lab
69/100
2 category wins1 category wins

Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Fable 5 unranked; Inkling #17

BenchAlign evidence: Claude Fable 5 supported; Inkling not scored. Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Fable 5 and Inkling share 4 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 29 results are unique to Claude Fable 5; 12 to Inkling.

Updated July 15, 2026
Shared results
4
Claude Fable 5 only
29
Inkling only
12
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Claude Fable 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Inkling only becomes the better choice if multimodal & grounded is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 4 shared benchmark results across 2 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Claude Fable 5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 91 to 69. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Fable 5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 89.2 against 68.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Pro, 80% to 54.3%. Inkling does hit back in multimodal & grounded, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Claude Fable 5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $10.00 input / $50.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.87 input / $4.68 output per 1M tokens for Inkling. That is roughly 10.7x on output cost alone. Claude Fable 5 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Inkling is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Claude Fable 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M+, compared with 1M for Inkling.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude Fable 5 and Inkling
CategoryClaude Fable 5ΔInkling
CodingClaude Fable 589.2Margin 20.6Inkling68.6
MultimodalClaude Fable 557.9Margin 18.6Inkling76.5
AgenticClaude Fable 584.6Margin 15.2Inkling69.4
KnowledgeClaude Fable 5Not measuredMarginNo overlapInkling51.7
MathClaude Fable 5Not measuredMarginNo overlapInkling97.1
Inst. FollowingClaude Fable 5Not measuredMarginNo overlapInkling79.8

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude Fable 5B · Inkling
  1. SWE-bench Pro

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 80%B 54.3%
    Winner: Claude Fable 5Δ 25.7
    SWE-bench Pro: Claude Fable 5 scored 80%; Inkling scored 54.3%. Claude Fable 5 wins this benchmark.
  2. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 84.3%B 63.8%
    Winner: Claude Fable 5Δ 20.5
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: Claude Fable 5 scored 84.3%; Inkling scored 63.8%. Claude Fable 5 wins this benchmark.
  3. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 95%B 77.6%
    Winner: Claude Fable 5Δ 17.4
    SWE-bench Verified: Claude Fable 5 scored 95%; Inkling scored 77.6%. Claude Fable 5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude Fable 5InklingComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Fable 5$10 input / $50 outputInkling$1.87 input / $4.68 outputInkling has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Fable 5Not availableInklingNot availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Fable 5Not availableInklingNot availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Fable 51M+Inkling1MListed context windows are equal.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticClaude Fable 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Fable 5InklingResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 84.3%63.8%Claude Fable 5 leads
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 85%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 1760Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 52.8%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 98.5%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 63.0%Not comparable
AA BriefcaseSource 1583Not comparable
AA AutomationBenchSource 48.6%Not comparable
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource 51.1%Not comparable
AA Harvey LABSource 14.2%Not comparable
AA Tau3 BankingSource 26.8%Not comparable
BrowseCompSource 77.1%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 74.1%Not comparable
Design Arena Agentic Web DevSource 1258Not comparable
CodingClaude Fable 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Fable 5InklingResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 95%77.6%Claude Fable 5 leads
SWE-bench ProSource 80%54.3%Claude Fable 5 leads
FrontierCodeSource 53.5%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 84.3%63.8%Claude Fable 5 leads
cursorBench31Source 70.6%Not comparable
cursorBench32Source 70.5%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 76.5%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench HardSource 62.9%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 60.2%Not comparable
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Source 84.6%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Fable 5InklingResult
AA-LCRSource 70.0%Not comparable
CritPtSource 28.6%Not comparable
Knowledge
BenchmarkClaude Fable 5InklingResult
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 59.9%Not comparable
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 92.6%Not comparable
AA-HLESource 53.3%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 40.2%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 61.4%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 54.9%Not comparable
GPQASource 87.9%Not comparable
GPQA-DSource 87.9%Not comparable
HLESource 46%Not comparable
HLE w/o toolsSource 30%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkClaude Fable 5InklingResult
AIME26Source 97.1%Not comparable
MultimodalInkling wins
BenchmarkClaude Fable 5InklingResult
Blueprint-Bench 2Source 38.6%Not comparable
OfficeQA ProSource 57.9%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1338Not comparable
MMMU-ProSource 73.5%Not comparable
CharXivSource 82%Not comparable
CharXiv w/o toolsSource 78.1%Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkClaude Fable 5InklingResult
AA-IFBenchSource 63.5%Not comparable
IFBenchSource 79.8%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Claude Fable 5 or Inkling?

Claude Fable 5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 91 to 69. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Pro, where the scores are 80% and 54.3%.

Which is better for coding, Claude Fable 5 or Inkling?

Claude Fable 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 89.2 versus 68.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Fable 5 or Inkling?

Claude Fable 5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 84.6 versus 69.4. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Claude Fable 5 or Inkling?

Inkling has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 76.5 versus 57.9. Claude Fable 5 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

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Last updated: July 15, 2026

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