Model comparison
Claude Opus 4.8 vs Ling 2.6 Flash
Head-to-head evidence from 17 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.8 #3; Ling 2.6 Flash unranked
Evidence parity. Claude Opus 4.8 and Ling 2.6 Flash share 17 comparable benchmark results. 2 of 8 categories are comparable. 36 results are unique to Claude Opus 4.8; 2 to Ling 2.6 Flash.
Updated July 12, 2026- Shared results
- 17
- Claude Opus 4.8 only
- 36
- Ling 2.6 Flash only
- 2
- Comparable categories
- 2 / 8
Pick Claude Opus 4.8 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ling 2.6 Flash only becomes the better choice if you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 17 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 2 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 4.8 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 85 to 37. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Opus 4.8's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 76.4 against 27. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 93.6% to 59%.
Claude Opus 4.8 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Ling 2.6 Flash 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 Opus 4.8 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 262K for Ling 2.6 Flash.
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 4.8 | Δ | Ling 2.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | Claude Opus 4.876.4 | Margin← 49.4 | Ling 2.6 Flash27.0 |
| Knowledge | Claude Opus 4.862.7 | Margin← 3.7 | Ling 2.6 Flash59.0 |
| Agentic | Claude Opus 4.880.3 | MarginNo overlap | Ling 2.6 FlashNot measured |
| Math | Claude Opus 4.853.9 | MarginNo overlap | Ling 2.6 FlashNot measured |
| Multimodal | Claude Opus 4.877.0 | MarginNo overlap | Ling 2.6 FlashNot measured |
| Inst. Following | Claude Opus 4.8Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Ling 2.6 Flash57.0 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 93.6%B 59%Winner: Claude Opus 4.8Δ 34.6GPQA: Claude Opus 4.8 scored 93.6%; Ling 2.6 Flash scored 59%. Claude Opus 4.8 wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.8 | Ling 2.6 Flash | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Claude Opus 4.8$5 input / $25 output | Ling 2.6 FlashNot available | A complete price comparison is not available. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Claude Opus 4.8Not available | Ling 2.6 Flash209.5 tok/s | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Claude Opus 4.8Not available | Ling 2.6 Flash1.07 s | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Claude Opus 4.81M | Ling 2.6 Flash262K | Claude Opus 4.8 lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic19 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Ling 2.6 Flash | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | 74.6% | — | Not comparable |
| BrowseCompSource | 84.3% | — | Not comparable |
| DeepSearchQASource | 93.1% | — | Not comparable |
| OSWorld-VerifiedSource | 83.4% | — | Not comparable |
| Finance Agent v2Source | 53.9% | — | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | 1600 | 542 | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| MCP AtlasSource | 82.2% | — | Not comparable |
| ToolathlonSource | 59.9% | — | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | 72.97% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Agentic IndexSource | 47.2% | 2.3% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| Tau2-TelecomSource | 94.4% | 86% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| GDPval-AASource | 55.0% | 2.1% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| ResearchClawBenchSource | 21.1% | — | Not comparable |
| OSWorld 2.0Source | 20.6% | — | Not comparable |
| AA BriefcaseSource | 1354 | — | Not comparable |
| AA AutomationBenchSource | 48.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource | 44.0% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Harvey LABSource | 7.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Tau3 BankingSource | 27.6% | — | Not comparable |
CodingClaude Opus 4.8 wins13 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Ling 2.6 Flash | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 88.6% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench ProSource | 69.2% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE MultilingualSource | 84.4% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE MultimodalSource | 38.4% | — | Not comparable |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | 74.6% | — | Not comparable |
| cursorBench31Source | 58.4% | — | Not comparable |
| cursorBench32Source | 62.3% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Coding IndexSource | 74.3% | 25.3% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| Terminal-Bench HardSource | 58.3% | 21.2% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 53.5% | 27.1% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| FrontierCodeSource | 46.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Source | 84.6% | — | Not comparable |
| SciCodeSource | — | 27% | Not comparable |
Reasoning2 benchmarks
KnowledgeClaude Opus 4.8 wins10 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Ling 2.6 Flash | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQASource | 93.6% | 59% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| GPQA-DSource | 93.6% | — | Not comparable |
| HLESource | 57.9% | — | Not comparable |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | 49.8% | — | Not comparable |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 55.7% | 14.1% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 92.0% | 59.3% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| AA-HLESource | 45.7% | 6.2% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | 27.4% | -65.7% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 46.6% | 15.4% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 35.9% | 95.8% | Claude Opus 4.8 leads |
Math3 benchmarks
Multilingual1 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Ling 2.6 Flash | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| INCLUDESource | 87.6% | — | Not comparable |
Multimodal5 benchmarks
Frequently Asked Questions (3)
Which is better, Claude Opus 4.8 or Ling 2.6 Flash?
Claude Opus 4.8 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 85 to 37. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 93.6% and 59%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Opus 4.8 or Ling 2.6 Flash?
Claude Opus 4.8 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 62.7 versus 59. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.8 or Ling 2.6 Flash?
Claude Opus 4.8 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 76.4 versus 27. Inside this category, AA Coding Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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