Model comparison
Claude Opus 4.6 vs Inkling
Head-to-head evidence from 9 shared benchmark results across 4 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.6 #8; Inkling #17
BenchAlign evidence: Claude Opus 4.6 supported; Inkling not scored. Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Claude Opus 4.6 and Inkling share 9 comparable benchmark results. 5 of 8 categories are comparable. 39 results are unique to Claude Opus 4.6; 7 to Inkling.
Updated July 15, 2026- Shared results
- 9
- Claude Opus 4.6 only
- 39
- Inkling only
- 7
- Comparable categories
- 5 / 8
Pick Claude Opus 4.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Inkling only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 9 shared benchmark results across 4 evidence categories; 5 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 4.6 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 84 to 69. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Opus 4.6's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 69.2 against 51.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HLE, 53% to 46%. Inkling does hit back in mathematics, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Claude Opus 4.6 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $5.00 input / $25.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.87 input / $4.68 output per 1M tokens for Inkling. That is roughly 5.3x on output cost alone. Inkling is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude Opus 4.6 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.
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 | Claude Opus 4.6 | Δ | Inkling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Math | Claude Opus 4.636.3 | Margin→ 60.8 | Inkling97.1 |
| Knowledge | Claude Opus 4.669.2 | Margin← 17.5 | Inkling51.7 |
| Agentic | Claude Opus 4.673.0 | Margin← 3.6 | Inkling69.4 |
| Multimodal | Claude Opus 4.677.3 | Margin← 0.8 | Inkling76.5 |
| Coding | Claude Opus 4.668.1 | Margin→ 0.5 | Inkling68.6 |
| Inst. Following | Claude Opus 4.6Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Inkling79.8 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
HLE
KnowledgeA 53%B 46%Winner: Claude Opus 4.6Δ 7HLE: Claude Opus 4.6 scored 53%; Inkling scored 46%. Claude Opus 4.6 wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
BrowseComp
AgenticA 83.7%B 77.1%Winner: Claude Opus 4.6Δ 6.6BrowseComp: Claude Opus 4.6 scored 83.7%; Inkling scored 77.1%. Claude Opus 4.6 wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
MMMU-Pro
MultimodalA 77.3%B 73.5%Winner: Claude Opus 4.6Δ 3.8MMMU-Pro: Claude Opus 4.6 scored 77.3%; Inkling scored 73.5%. Claude Opus 4.6 wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 91.3%B 87.9%Winner: Claude Opus 4.6Δ 3.4GPQA: Claude Opus 4.6 scored 91.3%; Inkling scored 87.9%. Claude Opus 4.6 wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
SWE-bench Verified
CodingA 80.8%B 77.6%Winner: Claude Opus 4.6Δ 3.2SWE-bench Verified: Claude Opus 4.6 scored 80.8%; Inkling scored 77.6%. Claude Opus 4.6 wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.6 | Inkling | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Claude Opus 4.6$5 input / $25 output | Inkling$1.87 input / $4.68 output | Inkling has the lower combined listed price. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Claude Opus 4.640 tok/s | InklingNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Claude Opus 4.61.78 s | InklingNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Claude Opus 4.61M | Inkling1M | Listed context windows are equal. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
AgenticClaude Opus 4.6 wins12 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Inkling | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | 65.4% | 63.8% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| BrowseCompSource | 83.7% | 77.1% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| OSWorld-VerifiedSource | 72.7% | — | Not comparable |
| τ²-bench resultsSource | 84.8% | — | Not comparable |
| Claw-EvalSource | 70.4% | — | Not comparable |
| DeepSearchQASource | 73.7% | — | Not comparable |
| CyberGymSource | 66.6% | — | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | 61.85% | — | Not comparable |
| ResearchClawBenchSource | 19.9% | — | Not comparable |
| JobBenchSource | 36.7% | — | Not comparable |
| MCP AtlasSource | — | 74.1% | Not comparable |
| Design Arena Agentic Web DevSource | — | 1258 | Not comparable |
CodingInkling wins11 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Inkling | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 80.8% | 77.6% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| SWE-bench Verified*Source | 75.6% | — | Not comparable |
| LiveCodeBench ProSource | 70.7% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench ProSource | 53.4% | 54.3% | Inkling leads |
| SWE-RebenchSource | 65.3% | — | Not comparable |
| React Native EvalsSource | 84.1% | — | Not comparable |
| Vibe Code BenchSource | 57.57% | — | Not comparable |
| Terminal-Bench HardSource | 48.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 45.7% | — | Not comparable |
| FrontierCodeSource | 26.9% | — | Not comparable |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 63.8% | Not comparable |
Reasoning2 benchmarks
KnowledgeClaude Opus 4.6 wins15 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Inkling | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQASource | 91.3% | 87.9% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| GPQA-DSource | 89.2% | 87.9% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| SuperGPQASource | 95% | — | Not comparable |
| MMLU-ProSource | 82% | — | Not comparable |
| MMLU-Pro (Arcee)Source | 89.1% | — | Not comparable |
| HLESource | 53% | 46% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | 40% | 30% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| HealthBench HardSource | 14.8% | — | Not comparable |
| MedXpertQA (Text)Source | 52.1% | — | Not comparable |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 37.8% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 84.0% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-HLESource | 18.6% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | 3.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 45.2% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 76.0% | — | Not comparable |
MathInkling wins4 benchmarks
MultimodalClaude Opus 4.6 wins9 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Inkling | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMMU-ProSource | 77.3% | 73.5% | Claude Opus 4.6 leads |
| ERQASource | 51.6% | — | Not comparable |
| ScreenSpot ProSource | 83.1% | — | Not comparable |
| MedXpertQA (MM)Source | 64.8% | — | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | 1606 | — | Not comparable |
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | 72.5% | — | Not comparable |
| Design Arena WebsiteSource | 1330 | — | Not comparable |
| CharXivSource | — | 82% | Not comparable |
| CharXiv w/o toolsSource | — | 78.1% | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (6)
Which is better, Claude Opus 4.6 or Inkling?
Claude Opus 4.6 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 84 to 69. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HLE, where the scores are 53% and 46%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Opus 4.6 or Inkling?
Claude Opus 4.6 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 69.2 versus 51.7. Inside this category, HLE w/o tools is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Inkling?
Inkling has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 68.6 versus 68.1. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for math, Claude Opus 4.6 or Inkling?
Inkling has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97.1 versus 36.3. Claude Opus 4.6 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Opus 4.6 or Inkling?
Claude Opus 4.6 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 73 versus 69.4. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Claude Opus 4.6 or Inkling?
Claude Opus 4.6 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 77.3 versus 76.5. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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