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Model comparison

Inkling vs o1

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 1 shared benchmark result across 1 category. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

Thinking Machines Lab
69/100
Margin
21.1pts
← winning
OpenAI
47.92/100
1 category wins2 category wins

Verified leaderboard positions: Inkling #17; o1 unranked

BenchAlign evidence: Inkling not scored; o1 estimated. Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Inkling and o1 share 1 comparable benchmark result. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 15 results are unique to Inkling; 16 to o1.

Updated July 15, 2026
Shared results
1
Inkling only
15
o1 only
16
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Inkling if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o1 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 1 shared benchmark result across 1 evidence category; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Inkling is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 69 to 55. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Inkling's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 97.1 against 9.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 87.9% to 75.7%. o1 does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

o1 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $15.00 input / $60.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.87 input / $4.68 output per 1M tokens for Inkling. That is roughly 12.8x on output cost alone. o1 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. Inkling gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 200K for o1.

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 Inkling and o1
CategoryInklingΔo1
MathInkling97.1Margin 87.8o19.3
KnowledgeInkling51.7Margin 24.0o175.7
Inst. FollowingInkling79.8Margin 12.4o192.2
AgenticInkling69.4MarginNo overlapo1Not measured
CodingInkling68.6MarginNo overlapo1Not measured
MultimodalInkling76.5MarginNo overlapo1Not measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · InklingB · o1
  1. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 87.9%B 75.7%
    Winner: InklingΔ 12.2
    GPQA: Inkling scored 87.9%; o1 scored 75.7%. Inkling wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricInklingo1Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensInkling$1.87 input / $4.68 outputo1$15 input / $60 outputInkling has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondInklingNot availableo198 tok/sA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenInklingNot availableo132.29 sA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensInkling1Mo1200KInkling lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkInklingo1Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 63.8%Not comparable
BrowseCompSource 77.1%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 74.1%Not comparable
Design Arena Agentic Web DevSource 1258Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 62.6%Not comparable
Coding
BenchmarkInklingo1Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 77.6%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 54.3%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 63.8%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 39.7%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench HardSource 12.9%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 35.8%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkInklingo1Result
AA-LCRSource 59.3%Not comparable
CritPtSource 0.3%Not comparable
Knowledgeo1 wins
BenchmarkInklingo1Result
GPQASource 87.9%75.7%Inkling leads
GPQA-DSource 87.9%Not comparable
HLESource 46%Not comparable
HLE w/o toolsSource 30%Not comparable
MMLUSource 91.8%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 23.4%Not comparable
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 74.7%Not comparable
AA-HLESource 7.7%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -10.5%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 34.7%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 69.3%Not comparable
MathInkling wins
BenchmarkInklingo1Result
AIME26Source 97.1%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 9.310%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkInklingo1Result
MMMU-ProSource 73.5%Not comparable
CharXivSource 82%Not comparable
CharXiv w/o toolsSource 78.1%Not comparable
Inst. Followingo1 wins
BenchmarkInklingo1Result
IFBenchSource 79.8%Not comparable
IFEvalSource 92.2%Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource 70.3%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Inkling or o1?

Inkling is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 69 to 55. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 87.9% and 75.7%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Inkling or o1?

o1 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 75.7 versus 51.7. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Inkling or o1?

Inkling has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97.1 versus 9.3. o1 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Which is better for instruction following, Inkling or o1?

o1 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 92.2 versus 79.8. Inkling 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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