Coding
Like-for-like- Grok 4.20
- 67.1
- Inkling
- 68.6
- Weighted basis
- 2 vs 2 rows
- Reading
- Inkling leads
Grok 4.20 vs Inkling
Updated August 29, 2026. Public scores include evidence status and uncertainty. They are not guarantees for a specific workload.
Decision reading
Inkling has the higher public score estimate, 67.02 versus 55.44, but the 90% score intervals overlap. Treat that as a lead, not a settled winner.
7 results are shared. Category rows based on different benchmark sets are marked directional and do not name a winner.
Which one for your work
Recommendations appear only when a shared evidence basis or an explicit operating constraint supports the call. Secondary and unsupported use cases stay disclosed below the initial list.
Coding work
Code generation, repair, and software-engineering tasks
Inkling
Inkling leads on the same 2 weighted benchmark rows.
Confidence: limited
Long documents
Prompts that approach the documented context limit
Grok 4.20
Grok 4.20 has the larger documented context window.
Confidence: documented
Chat turn cost
1K fresh input + 500 output tokens
Inkling
Inkling has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.
Confidence: listed-rates
Show secondary and unsupported calls
Cache-heavy agent loop cost
200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens
Inkling
Inkling has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Grok 4.20 has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.
Confidence: rate-fallback
Repository review cost
50K fresh input + 3K output tokens
Inkling
Inkling has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.
Confidence: listed-rates
Agentic work
Tool use, computer use, and multi-step task completion
Not enough matched evidence
The category averages use different weighted benchmark sets, so they are directional rather than like-for-like.
Confidence: limited
What is actually comparable
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results present for only one model describe coverage, not superiority.
11 Grok 4.20 only
7 Shared
8 Inkling only
- Shared results
- 7
- Grok 4.20 only
- 11
- Inkling only
- 8
- Like-for-like categories
- 2 / 8
1 category uses different evidence sets. Those rows remain visible for coverage context but do not name a winner.
Category results, on a stated basis
Each row states whether both averages use the same weighted benchmark set. Directional and not-comparable rows remain visible, but they never receive a winner in this template.
Multimodal
Like-for-like- Grok 4.20
- 70.1
- Inkling
- 76.5
- Weighted basis
- 2 vs 2 rows
- Reading
- Inkling leads
Agentic
Directional only- Grok 4.20
- 47.1
- Inkling
- 69.4
- Weighted basis
- 1 vs 2 rows
- Reading
- Directional only
Reasoning
Not comparable- Grok 4.20
- 53.3
- Inkling
- Not measured
- Weighted basis
- 1 vs 0 rows
- Reading
- Not comparable
Knowledge
Not comparable- Grok 4.20
- Not measured
- Inkling
- 51.6
- Weighted basis
- 0 vs 2 rows
- Reading
- Not comparable
Math
Not comparable- Grok 4.20
- Not measured
- Inkling
- 97.1
- Weighted basis
- 0 vs 1 rows
- Reading
- Not comparable
Multilingual
Not comparable- Grok 4.20
- Not measured
- Inkling
- Not measured
- Weighted basis
- 0 vs 0 rows
- Reading
- Not comparable
Instruction following
Not comparable- Grok 4.20
- Not measured
- Inkling
- 79.8
- Weighted basis
- 0 vs 1 rows
- Reading
- Not comparable
| Category | Grok 4.20 | Inkling | Weighted basis | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 67.1 | 68.6 | Like-for-like2 vs 2 rows | Inkling leads |
| Multimodal | 70.1 | 76.5 | Like-for-like2 vs 2 rows | Inkling leads |
| Agentic | 47.1 | 69.4 | Directional only1 vs 2 rows | Directional only |
| Reasoning | 53.3 | Not measured | Not comparable1 vs 0 rows | Not comparable |
| Knowledge | Not measured | 51.6 | Not comparable0 vs 2 rows | Not comparable |
| Math | Not measured | 97.1 | Not comparable0 vs 1 rows | Not comparable |
| Multilingual | Not measured | Not measured | Not comparable0 vs 0 rows | Not comparable |
| Instruction following | Not measured | 79.8 | Not comparable0 vs 1 rows | Not comparable |
Shape of the matched evidence
Only shared public evidence is shown. Sparse evidence stays a ruled list rather than being closed into a radar shape.
Too few matched category axes support a radar. The ruled list below shows only shared benchmark results; positions use each benchmark’s normalized display scale when available.
CharXiv
Multimodal
Terminal-Bench 2.0
Agentic
SWE-bench Pro
Coding
MMMU-Pro
Multimodal
SWE-bench Verified
Coding
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes turn per-token rates into comparable decisions. Each scenario states context fit and whether cached input had to fall back to the published list-input rate.
Chat turn
1K fresh input + 500 output tokens
- Grok 4.20
- $0.005
- Fits in one request
- Inkling
- $0.00421
- Fits in one request
Inkling has the lower modeled cost
Costs use the listed standard API rates.
Repository review
50K fresh input + 3K output tokens
- Grok 4.20
- $0.118
- Fits in one request
- Inkling
- $0.10754
- Fits in one request
Inkling has the lower modeled cost
Costs use the listed standard API rates.
Cache-heavy agent loop
200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens
- Grok 4.20
- $0.5
- Fits in one request
- Cached input priced at the published list-input rate
- Inkling
- $0.159
- Fits in one request
Inkling has the lower modeled cost
Grok 4.20 has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.
Specification differences
Sourced differences are shown directly. Missing facts stay explicit instead of being inferred from a model name or family.
SpecificationGrok 4.20Inkling
Context window
Maximum documented context; output-token limits may be lower.
Grok 4.20
2M
Inkling
1M
API model ID
Grok 4.20
Not sourced
Inkling
Not sourced
Cached-input rate
A missing cached-input rate falls back to the listed input rate only in the stated workload estimate.
Grok 4.20
Not published
Inkling
$0.374 per 1M cached input tokens
Documented inputs
Grok 4.20
Not sourced
Inkling
Not sourced
Documented outputs
Grok 4.20
Not sourced
Inkling
Not sourced
Provider availability
Grok 4.20
Not sourced
Inkling
Not sourced
Reasoning profile
Grok 4.20
Reasoning
Inkling
Hybrid
Weight access
Grok 4.20
Proprietary
Inkling
Open Weight
License
Grok 4.20
Proprietary
Inkling
Open Weight
Release date
Grok 4.20
2026-03-10
Inkling
2026-07-15
If you already use one of these models
- Deployment change
- The models list different providers, so authentication, endpoint behavior, limits, and feature support may change.
- Quality signal
- Inkling has the higher public score estimate, 67.02 versus 55.44, but the 90% score intervals overlap.
- Workload cost
- Repository review: $0.118 vs $0.10754. Cache-heavy agent loop: $0.5 vs $0.159.
- Context tradeoff
- Grok 4.20 has the larger documented window (2M).
Run the same representative tasks against both endpoints before changing production traffic.
Benchmark evidence
The full public result ledger is available for audit without forcing a wide desktop table onto a phone.
Browse raw public benchmark evidence26 rows
Agentic
Terminal-Bench 2.0
Grok 4.2047.1%SourceInkling63.8%SourceInkling leads this result
DeepSearchQA
Grok 4.2062.8%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
Gert Labs
Grok 4.2038.36%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
BrowseComp
Grok 4.20—Inkling77.1%SourceNot directly comparable
MCP Atlas
Grok 4.20—Inkling74.1%SourceNot directly comparable
Coding
LiveCodeBench Pro
Grok 4.2074.2%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
SWE-bench Verified
Grok 4.2076.7%SourceInkling77.6%SourceInkling leads this result
SWE-bench Pro
Grok 4.2051.8%SourceInkling54.3%SourceInkling leads this result
Vibe Code Bench
Grok 4.204.06%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0
Grok 4.20—Inkling63.8%SourceNot directly comparable
Reasoning
Knowledge
GPQA-D
Grok 4.2088.5%SourceInkling87.9%SourceGrok 4.20 leads this result
HLE w/o tools
Grok 4.2031.6%SourceInkling30%SourceGrok 4.20 leads this result
HealthBench Hard
Grok 4.2020.3%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
MedXpertQA (Text)
Grok 4.2050.2%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
GPQA
Grok 4.20—Inkling87.9%SourceNot directly comparable
HLE
Grok 4.20—Inkling46%SourceNot directly comparable
Math
AIME26
Grok 4.20—Inkling97.1%SourceNot directly comparable
Multimodal
MMMU-Pro
Grok 4.2075.2%SourceInkling73.5%SourceGrok 4.20 leads this result
CharXiv
Grok 4.2060.9%SourceInkling82%SourceInkling leads this result
ERQA
Grok 4.2054.1%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
SimpleVQA
Grok 4.2057.4%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
MedXpertQA (MM)
Grok 4.2065.8%SourceInkling—Not directly comparable
CharXiv w/o tools
Grok 4.20—Inkling78.1%SourceNot directly comparable
Instruction following
IFBench
Grok 4.20—Inkling79.8%SourceNot directly comparable
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Grok 4.20 or Inkling?
Inkling has the higher public score estimate, 67.02 versus 55.44, but the 90% score intervals overlap. The higher estimate is not a decisive winner because the uncertainty ranges overlap.
Which is better for coding, Grok 4.20 or Inkling?
Inkling leads the like-for-like coding comparison across 2 shared weighted benchmark rows.
Which is better for agentic tasks, Grok 4.20 or Inkling?
The current agentic tasks averages use different weighted benchmark sets, so BenchLM does not name a winner from them. Read the shared benchmark rows directly and test the models on the same task set.
Which costs less, Grok 4.20 or Inkling?
For the stated presets, chat costs $0.005 on Grok 4.20 and $0.00421 on Inkling; repository review costs $0.118 and $0.10754; the cache-heavy agent loop costs $0.5 and $0.159. Grok 4.20 has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.
Which has the larger context window, Grok 4.20 or Inkling?
Grok 4.20 has the larger documented context window: 2M, compared with 1M.
Related comparisons
Last updated August 29, 2026
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