# Inkling vs MAI-Thinking-1

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Inkling and MAI-Thinking-1 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/inkling-vs-mai-thinking-1
- Last updated: October 14, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 6
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

MAI-Thinking-1 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- MAI-Thinking-1 has the higher overall point estimate 53.17 to 52.13. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in mathematics, where the averages are 58.3 for Inkling and 81.1 for MAI-Thinking-1.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is IFBench in Instruction Following, with scores of 79.8% and 85%.
- Inkling also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Thinking Machines Lab | Microsoft |
| Type | Open Weight | Proprietary |
| Reasoning | Hybrid | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 256K |
| Overall Score | 52.13 | 53.17 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 24 | 13 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $1.87 / $4.68 | N/A |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 36.2 (Supported · #72/124)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 63.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | 77.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | 74.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 47.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CWE-bench v1 | 37.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | Coming soon | 46% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 34 (Supported · #80/149)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.6% | 73.5% | Inkling |
| SWE-bench Pro | 54.3% | 52.8% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 63.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierSWE v2 | 4.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 85.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 77.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | Coming soon | 87.7% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | Coming soon | 46.0% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 79 (#14/29)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Graphwalks BFS 128K | Coming soon | 90% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 67.5 (#35/54)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| MMMU-Pro | 73.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv | 82% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 78.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling public-lane score: 54.5 (Supported · #62/181)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: 55.7 (Estimated · #55/181)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 87.9% | 84.2% | Inkling |
| GPQA-D | 87.9% | 84.2% | Inkling |
| HLE | 46% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | 30% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 87.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 86.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | Coming soon | 85% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: MAI-Thinking-1
- Inkling public-lane score: 87.6 (#35/128)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: 94.7 (#3/128)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.8% | 85% | MAI-Thinking-1 |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 58.3 (#11/12)
- MAI-Thinking-1 public-lane score: 81.1 (Unranked · 3 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Inkling | MAI-Thinking-1 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME26 | 97.1% | 94.5% | Inkling |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) | 33.333% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4) | 4.878% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| AIME 2025 | Coming soon | 97% | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | Coming soon | 84.9% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Inkling or MAI-Thinking-1?

MAI-Thinking-1 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Inkling and MAI-Thinking-1?

The widest category gap is in mathematics, where the averages are 58.3 for Inkling and 81.1 for MAI-Thinking-1.

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

Inkling currently has 24 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does MAI-Thinking-1 cover on BenchLM?

MAI-Thinking-1 currently has 13 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Inkling vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-vs-inkling-small)
- [MAI-Thinking-1 vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-small-vs-mai-thinking-1)
- [Inkling vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-inkling)
- [MAI-Thinking-1 vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-mai-thinking-1)

## Explore More

- [Inkling profile](/models/inkling)
- [MAI-Thinking-1 profile](/models/mai-thinking-1)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)