# Inkling-Small vs Step 5 Preview

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Inkling-Small and Step 5 Preview across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/inkling-small-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: September 21, 2026

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

## Quick Verdict

Pick Step 5 Preview if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Inkling-Small only makes more sense when its price, context window, or workload-specific category wins matter more than the overall score.

## Summary

- Step 5 Preview leads overall 72 to 59.58.
- The clearest category separation is in reasoning, where the averages are 42.7 for Inkling-Small and 78.5 for Step 5 Preview.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Toolathlon-Verified in Agentic, with scores of 54.4% and 74.1%.
- Inkling-Small is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Thinking Machines Lab | StepFun |
| Type | Open Weight | Pending |
| Reasoning | Hybrid | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 59.58 | null |
| Benchmarks Covered | 25 | 22 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.58 / $1.44 | $1.00 / $2.70 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Coming soon
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 37.6 (Supported · #129/154)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 64.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | 77.4% | 88.7% | Step 5 Preview |
| MCP Atlas | 79.6% | 85.6% | Step 5 Preview |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 54.4% | 74.1% | Step 5 Preview |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 55.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 85.0% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | Coming soon | 33.30% | Coming soon |
| CyberGym | Coming soon | 84.7% | Coming soon |
| AutomationBench | Coming soon | 44.0% | Coming soon |
| JobBench | Coming soon | 59.0% | Coming soon |
| APEX-Agents | Coming soon | 37.8% | Coming soon |
| DRACO | Coming soon | 83.3% | Coming soon |
| Agents' Last Exam | Coming soon | 29.5% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Coming soon
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 44.6 (Supported · #99/156)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 80.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench Pro | 55.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 64.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SciCode | 48.7% | 58.9% | Step 5 Preview |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 85.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 82.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| DeepSWE | Coming soon | 67.7% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 85.0% | Coming soon |
| ProgramBench | Coming soon | 80.5% | Coming soon |
| sweMarathon | Coming soon | 72.7% | Coming soon |
| MLS-Bench Lite | Coming soon | 40.5% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Coming soon
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 42.7 (Unranked · 3 rankable rows)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: 78.5 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 40.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CritPt | 8.3% | 20.9% | Step 5 Preview |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Coming soon
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 48.8 (#40/49)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: 61.2 (#28/49)

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| MMMU-Pro | 74% | 76% | Step 5 Preview |
| CharXiv | 81.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 77.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OfficeQA Pro | Coming soon | 60.3% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Coming soon
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 56.8 (Supported · #46/186)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 89.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | 89.5% | 93.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| HLE | 47.8% | 46.5% | Inkling-Small |
| HLE w/o tools | 31.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 83.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 85.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Coming soon
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 89.2 (#20/124)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 82.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Coming soon
- Inkling-Small public-lane score: 76.5 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling-Small | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME26 | 95.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | 90.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Inkling-Small or Step 5 Preview?

Step 5 Preview is ahead overall on BenchLM right now.

### Where is the biggest gap between Inkling-Small and Step 5 Preview?

The widest category gap is in reasoning, where the averages are 42.7 for Inkling-Small and 78.5 for Step 5 Preview.

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

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

### How many benchmarks does Step 5 Preview cover on BenchLM?

Step 5 Preview currently has 22 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Inkling-Small vs Inkling](/compare/inkling-vs-inkling-small)
- [Step 5 Preview vs Inkling](/compare/inkling-vs-step-5-preview)
- [Inkling-Small vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-inkling-small)
- [Step 5 Preview vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-step-5-preview)

## Explore More

- [Inkling-Small profile](/models/inkling-small)
- [Step 5 Preview profile](/models/step-5-preview)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)