Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning) vs Inkling 2 Small
Which is better for the money: Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning) by Anthropic or Inkling 2 Small by Thinking Machines? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-06.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Inkling 2 Small scores 23.2 points higher (30.6 vs 7.4) but costs 1.5× as much to run the benchmark ($792 vs $541; both premium class). Pick Inkling 2 Small when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning).
| Metric | Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning) | Inkling 2 Small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.4 | 30.6 | +313.5% Inkling 2 Small is 4.1× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $541.07 | $791.81 | +46.3% Inkling 2 Small is 46.3% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 28.79s | 20.92s | −27.3% Inkling 2 Small is 27.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.00 / $5.00 | $0.30 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Inkling 2 Small vs Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning): 313.5% more intelligence, 46.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 27.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 46.30 for $389.
- Inkling 2 Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 52.50 for $718.
Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning)Inkling 2 SmallToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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