GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs Inkling Small
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) by OpenAI or Inkling Small by Thinking Machines? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) scores 16.4 points higher (42.1 vs 25.7) but costs 10× as much to run the benchmark ($2501 vs $241; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) when you need intelligence above 25.7, and Inkling Small when 25.7 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | Inkling Small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.1 | 25.7 | −39.0% Inkling Small is 39.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,500.72 | $240.85 | −90.4% Inkling Small is 90.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 107.91s | 12.95s | −88.0% Inkling Small is 88.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.30 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech |
Inkling Small vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Max): 39.0% less intelligence, 90.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 88.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max)Inkling SmallToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra/inkling-small · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra/inkling-small?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill