# Claude Opus 4.8 vs Inkling 2 Small

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Claude Opus 4.8 and Inkling 2 Small across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/claude-opus-4-8-vs-inkling-2-small
- Last updated: November 7, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 12
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Claude Opus 4.8 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Claude Opus 4.8 has the higher overall point estimate 69.55 to 59.06. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in reasoning, where the averages are 61 for Claude Opus 4.8 and 86.1 for Inkling 2 Small.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 in Agentic, with scores of 74.6% and 85.1%.
- Inkling 2 Small is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Anthropic | Thinking Machines Lab |
| Type | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Hybrid |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 69.55 | 59.06 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 44 | 25 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $5.00 / $25.00 | $0.30 / $1.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Tie
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: 59.9 (Supported · #27/131)
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 59.9 (Supported · #26/131)

| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 3.0 | 21.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 74.6% | 85.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| BrowseComp | 84.3% | 90.2% | Inkling 2 Small |
| DeepSearchQA | 93.1% | 90.9% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| OSWorld-Verified | 83.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Finance Agent v2 | 53.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | 82.2% | 85% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Toolathlon | 59.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Gert Labs | 72.97% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ResearchClawBench | 21.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 71.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MazeBench | 0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| JobBench | Coming soon | 70.5% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Claude Opus 4.8
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: 60.8 (Supported · #18/157)
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 59.7 (Supported · #20/157)

| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 88.6% | 82.2% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| SWE-bench Pro | 69.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 84.4% | 81.2% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| SWE Multimodal | 38.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 74.6% | 85.1% | Inkling 2 Small |
| cursorBench31 | 58.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CursorBench 3.2 | 62.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierCode 1.1 Main | 46.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 87.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 88.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PostTrainBench v1.1 | 32.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 14.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| sweMarathon | Coming soon | 38.8% | Coming soon |
| DeepSWE | Coming soon | 72.1% | Coming soon |
| PostTrainBench v1.2 | Coming soon | 31.9% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: 61 (#19/25)
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 86.1 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 72.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ARC-AGI-3 | 1.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 92.50% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LongBench v2 | Coming soon | 70.6% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Directional only
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: 87.8 (#9/59)
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 86.6 (#12/59)

| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ExtractBench (LlamaIndex) | 86.84% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ParseBench | 62.27% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OfficeQA Pro | 66.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ScreenSpot Pro | 87.9% | 83.8% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| CharXiv | 89.9% | 87.7% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 80.5% | 85.6% | Inkling 2 Small |
| Chartography (no tools) | Coming soon | 36.7% | Coming soon |
| Chartography (tools) | Coming soon | 80.4% | Coming soon |
| BabyVision | Coming soon | 68.6% | Coming soon |
| BabyVision w/ Python | Coming soon | 93.7% | Coming soon |
| PerceptionBench | Coming soon | 64.7% | Coming soon |
| MathVision | Coming soon | 92.8% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: 71.1 (Supported · #15/178)
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 60.4 (Estimated · #46/178)

| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 93.6% | 93% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| GPQA-D | 93.6% | 93.0% | Claude Opus 4.8 |
| HLE | 57.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | 49.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 92.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 89.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Multilingual

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| INCLUDE | 87.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: 75.4 (#70/157)
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: Coming soon

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Claude Opus 4.8 public-lane score: 80.9 (#1/12)
- Inkling 2 Small public-lane score: 85.9 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.8 | Inkling 2 Small | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| USAMO 2026 | 96.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) | 80.000% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4) | 56.098% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | Coming soon | 95.8% | Coming soon |
| Apex | Coming soon | 63.5% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.8 or Inkling 2 Small?

Claude Opus 4.8 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Claude Opus 4.8 and Inkling 2 Small?

The widest category gap is in reasoning, where the averages are 61 for Claude Opus 4.8 and 86.1 for Inkling 2 Small.

### How many benchmarks does Claude Opus 4.8 cover on BenchLM?

Claude Opus 4.8 currently has 44 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Inkling 2 Small cover on BenchLM?

Inkling 2 Small currently has 25 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Claude Opus 4.8 vs Inkling-Small](/compare/claude-opus-4-8-vs-inkling-small)
- [Inkling 2 Small vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-2-small-vs-inkling-small)
- [Claude Opus 4.8 vs Inkling](/compare/claude-opus-4-8-vs-inkling)
- [Inkling 2 Small vs Inkling](/compare/inkling-vs-inkling-2-small)

## Explore More

- [Claude Opus 4.8 profile](/models/claude-opus-4-8)
- [Inkling 2 Small profile](/models/inkling-2-small)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)