Inkling Small vs Muse Ember (Max)
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines or Muse Ember (Max) by Meta? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-09.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Muse Ember (Max)
Muse Ember (Max) vs Inkling Small: 179.1% more intelligence, 47.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Muse Ember (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.9 | 36.0 | +179.1% Muse Ember (Max) is 2.8× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $224.77 | $117.12 | −47.9% Muse Ember (Max) is 47.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 29.44s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.10 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text, Image |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 38.20 for $190.
- Muse Ember (Max) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Inkling SmallMuse Ember (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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