# Inkling vs ZAYA1-8B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Inkling and ZAYA1-8B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/inkling-vs-zaya1-8b
- Last updated: October 14, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 4
- 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 52.13 to 34.48. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in instruction following, where the averages are 87.6 for Inkling and 23.6 for ZAYA1-8B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is IFBench in Instruction Following, with scores of 79.8% and 52.6%.
- ZAYA1-8B is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.
- Inkling also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Inkling | ZAYA1-8B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Thinking Machines Lab | Zyphra |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Hybrid | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 131K |
| Overall Score | 52.13 | 34.48 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 24 | 11 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $1.87 / $4.68 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 36.2 (Supported · #72/124)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | ZAYA1-8B | 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 |
| BFCL v4 | Coming soon | 39.2% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 34 (Supported · #80/149)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench Pro | 54.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| 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 | 65.8% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 79 (#14/29)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: Coming soon

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 67.5 (#35/54)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Inkling | ZAYA1-8B | 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)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: 38.1 (Estimated · #121/181)

| Benchmark | Inkling | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 87.9% | 71% | Inkling |
| GPQA-D | 87.9% | 71.0% | 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 | 74.2% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Inkling
- Inkling public-lane score: 87.6 (#35/128)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: 23.6 (#124/128)

| Benchmark | Inkling | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.8% | 52.6% | Inkling |
| IFEval | Coming soon | 85.6% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Inkling public-lane score: 58.3 (#11/12)
- ZAYA1-8B public-lane score: 69.4 (Unranked · 4 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Inkling | ZAYA1-8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME26 | 97.1% | 89.1% | 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 | 71.6% | Coming soon |
| IMOAnswerBench | Coming soon | 59.3% | Coming soon |
| Apex | Coming soon | 32.2% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Inkling or ZAYA1-8B?

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

### Where is the biggest gap between Inkling and ZAYA1-8B?

The widest category gap is in instruction following, where the averages are 87.6 for Inkling and 23.6 for ZAYA1-8B.

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

Inkling currently has 24 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does ZAYA1-8B cover on BenchLM?

ZAYA1-8B currently has 11 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Inkling vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-vs-inkling-small)
- [ZAYA1-8B vs Inkling-Small](/compare/inkling-small-vs-zaya1-8b)
- [Inkling vs ZAYA1-74B-Preview](/compare/inkling-vs-zaya1-74b-preview)
- [ZAYA1-8B vs ZAYA1-74B-Preview](/compare/zaya1-74b-preview-vs-zaya1-8b)

## Explore More

- [Inkling profile](/models/inkling)
- [ZAYA1-8B profile](/models/zaya1-8b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)