Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Inkling 2 Small
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) 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 5.0 points higher (30.6 vs 25.6) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($792 vs $499; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Inkling 2 Small when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallbac….
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Inkling 2 Small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.6 | 30.6 | +19.5% Inkling 2 Small is 19.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $499.20 | $791.81 | +58.6% Inkling 2 Small is 58.6% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.83s | 20.92s | +206.3% Inkling 2 Small is 206.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.30 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Inkling 2 Small vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 19.5% more intelligence, 58.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 206.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) 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 Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)Inkling 2 SmallToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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