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Model comparison

Claude Opus 4.5 vs Ling 2.6 Flash

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 13 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

64.22/100
Margin
20.4pts
← winning
InclusionAI
43.87/100
2 category wins1 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.5 #34 (Supported); Ling 2.6 Flash #154 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Opus 4.5 and Ling 2.6 Flash share 13 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 46 results are unique to Claude Opus 4.5; 5 to Ling 2.6 Flash.

Updated July 21, 2026
Shared results
13
Claude Opus 4.5 only
46
Ling 2.6 Flash only
5
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ling 2.6 Flash only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you need the larger 262K context window.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 13 shared benchmark results across 5 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 Opus 4.5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 64.22 to 43.87. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Opus 4.5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 71.7 against 27. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 87% to 59%. Ling 2.6 Flash does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Ling 2.6 Flash gives you the larger context window at 262K, compared with 200K for Claude Opus 4.5.

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 Opus 4.5 and Ling 2.6 Flash
CategoryClaude Opus 4.5ΔLing 2.6 Flash
CodingClaude Opus 4.571.7Margin 44.7Ling 2.6 Flash27.0
Inst. FollowingClaude Opus 4.569.5Margin 12.5Ling 2.6 Flash57.0
KnowledgeClaude Opus 4.558.1Margin 0.9Ling 2.6 Flash59.0
AgenticClaude Opus 4.562.6MarginNo overlapLing 2.6 FlashNot measured
ReasoningClaude Opus 4.564.4MarginNo overlapLing 2.6 FlashNot measured
MathClaude Opus 4.557.5MarginNo overlapLing 2.6 FlashNot measured
MultilingualClaude Opus 4.585.7MarginNo overlapLing 2.6 FlashNot measured
MultimodalClaude Opus 4.569.9MarginNo overlapLing 2.6 FlashNot measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Claude Opus 4.5B · Ling 2.6 Flash
  1. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 87%B 59%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 28
    GPQA: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 87%; Ling 2.6 Flash scored 59%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.
  2. IFBench

    Inst. Following
    Source ↗
    A 58%B 57%
    Winner: Claude Opus 4.5Δ 1
    IFBench: Claude Opus 4.5 scored 58%; Ling 2.6 Flash scored 57%. Claude Opus 4.5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Opus 4.5$5 input / $25 outputLing 2.6 FlashNot availableA complete price comparison is not available.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Opus 4.546 tok/sLing 2.6 Flash209.5 tok/sLing 2.6 Flash has the higher measured throughput.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Opus 4.51.01 sLing 2.6 Flash1.07 sClaude Opus 4.5 reaches the first token sooner.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Opus 4.5200KLing 2.6 Flash262KLing 2.6 Flash lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 59.3%Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 66.3%Not comparable
OSWorldSource 66.3%Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 59.6%Not comparable
QwenClawBenchSource 52.3%Not comparable
τ³-bench resultsSource 70.2%Not comparable
VITA-BenchSource 23.3%Not comparable
DeepPlanningSource 26.4%Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 43.5%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 42.3%Not comparable
MCP-TasksSource 71.8%Not comparable
WideResearchSource 76.4%Not comparable
CyberGymSource 50.6%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 86.3%86%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
Gert LabsSource 64.23%Not comparable
JobBenchSource 32.3%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 2.2%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 545Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 2.3%Not comparable
CodingClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 80.9%Not comparable
LiveCodeBench v6Source 84.8%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 57.1%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 77.5%Not comparable
NL2RepoSource 43.2%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 47.0%27.1%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
SciCodeSource 27%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 25.3%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
LongBench v2Source 64.4%Not comparable
AI-NeedleSource 74%Not comparable
AA-LCRSource 65.3%25.0%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
CritPtSource 0.3%0.0%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
KnowledgeLing 2.6 Flash wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
GPQASource 87%59%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
SuperGPQASource 70.6%Not comparable
MMLU-ProSource 89.5%Not comparable
MMLU-ReduxSource 96.6%Not comparable
C-EvalSource 92.2%Not comparable
HLESource 30.8%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 34.7%14.1%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 81.0%59.3%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-HLESource 12.9%6.2%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -3.9%-65.7%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 40.7%15.4%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 75.4%95.8%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA MMLU-ProSource 88.9%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
AIME26Source 95.1%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2025Source 92.9%Not comparable
HMMT Nov 2025Source 93.3%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 85.3%Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 84.0%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 20.690%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 4.167%Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
MMLU-ProXSource 85.7%Not comparable
NOVA-63Source 56.7%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
MMMU-ProSource 70.6%Not comparable
MathVisionSource 74.3%Not comparable
CharXivSource 68.5%Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource 84.4%Not comparable
ScreenSpot ProSource 45.7%Not comparable
V*Source 67.0%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 71.2%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1277Not comparable
Inst. FollowingClaude Opus 4.5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Opus 4.5Ling 2.6 FlashResult
IFEvalSource 90.9%Not comparable
IFBenchSource 58%57%Claude Opus 4.5 leads
AA-IFBenchSource 43.0%57.4%Ling 2.6 Flash leads
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.5 or Ling 2.6 Flash?

Claude Opus 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 64.22 to 43.87. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 87% and 59%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Opus 4.5 or Ling 2.6 Flash?

Ling 2.6 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 59 versus 58.1. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.5 or Ling 2.6 Flash?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 71.7 versus 27. Inside this category, AA-SciCode is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Claude Opus 4.5 or Ling 2.6 Flash?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 69.5 versus 57. Inside this category, AA-IFBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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Last updated: July 21, 2026

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