# Inkling vs Spark-X2.6-4B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Inkling and Spark-X2.6-4B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/inkling-vs-spark-x2-6-4b
- Last updated: October 20, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 9
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

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

## Summary

- Inkling has the higher overall point estimate 52.58 to 40.14. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in reasoning, where the averages are 78.1 for Inkling and 48.8 for Spark-X2.6-4B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is BrowseComp in Agentic, with scores of 77.1% and 53.1%.
- Spark-X2.6-4B is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Thinking Machines Lab | SparkLLM |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Hybrid | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 52.58 | 40.14 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 24 | 20 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $1.87 / $4.68 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling public-lane score: 37.2 (Supported · #77/131)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 33 (Estimated · #89/131)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 63.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | 77.1% | 53.1% | Inkling |
| MCP Atlas | 74.1% | 62.4% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 47.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CWE-bench v1 | 37.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | Coming soon | 71.8% | Coming soon |
| τ²-bench results | Coming soon | 86.9% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/ tools | Coming soon | 36.9% | Coming soon |
| τ³-bench results | Coming soon | 34.7% | Coming soon |
| Claw-Eval | Coming soon | 69.9% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Inkling public-lane score: 33.7 (Supported · #84/152)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 30.6 (Estimated · #95/152)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.6% | 62.8% | Inkling |
| SWE-bench Pro | 54.3% | 54.3% | Tie |
| 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 |
| SWE Multilingual | Coming soon | 64.7% | Coming soon |
| SciCode | Coming soon | 36.8% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 78.1 (#12/27)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 48.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| LongBench v2 | Coming soon | 53.3% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 67.8 (#35/55)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B | 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: 54.4 (Supported · #65/187)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 43 (Estimated · #109/187)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 87.9% | 69.9% | Inkling |
| GPQA-D | 87.9% | 77.1% | Inkling |
| HLE | 46% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | 30% | 17.9% | Inkling |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 87.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 86.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Inkling
- Inkling public-lane score: 87.6 (#36/149)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 78.2 (#62/149)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.8% | 75.8% | Inkling |
| IFEval | Coming soon | 93.6% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 58.3 (#11/12)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 76.4 (Unranked · 3 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME26 | 97.1% | 91.2% | Inkling |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) | 33.333% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4) | 4.878% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | Coming soon | 81.3% | Coming soon |
| IMOAnswerBench | Coming soon | 75.2% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Inkling or Spark-X2.6-4B?

Inkling has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Inkling and Spark-X2.6-4B?

The widest category gap is in reasoning, where the averages are 78.1 for Inkling and 48.8 for Spark-X2.6-4B.

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

Inkling currently has 24 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Spark-X2.6-4B cover on BenchLM?

Spark-X2.6-4B currently has 20 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Inkling vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-vs-inkling-small)
- [Spark-X2.6-4B vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-small-vs-spark-x2-6-4b)
- [Inkling vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-inkling)
- [Spark-X2.6-4B vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-spark-x2-6-4b)

## Explore More

- [Inkling profile](/models/inkling)
- [Spark-X2.6-4B profile](/models/spark-x2-6-4b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)