Model comparison

GPT-5.2 vs Inkling-Small

GPT-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 7.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 31 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.2 OpenAI

54.1

Rank #34 Confirmed

Inkling-Small Thinking Machines Lab

46.5

Rank #63 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 31 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.2 scores higher in 9 categories and Inkling-Small in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GPT-5.2 leads 60.0 to 45.1.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Chess Puzzles: 49% for GPT-5.2 and 18% for Inkling-Small.
  • Inkling-Small is cheaper at $0.45 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.75 / $14 for GPT-5.2.
  • Inkling-Small accepts more context: 524K tokens versus 400K.
  • Inkling-Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.2 and Inkling-Small specifications
GPT-5.2Inkling-Small
ProviderOpenAIThinking Machines Lab
Noometry Index54.146.5
Released2025-12-112026-07-15
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window400K524K
Max output128K1.05M
Input $ / M tokens$1.75$0.45
Output $ / M tokens$14$1.20
Results tracked6733

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 51.6 (#37), Inkling-Small: 43.6 (#85)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
LMArena WebDev14161409
LMArena Coding14471451
SWE-bench Verified73.8%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)72.8%—
SWE-bench Multilingual66.7%—
SciCode—48.7%
GSO27.4%—
WeirdML72.2%—
ALE-Bench1,294—
AlgoTune2.05—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GPT-5.2: 40.2 (#24), Inkling-Small: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
Terminal-Bench64.9%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard55.9%—
GDPval49.7%—
Remote Labor Index2.5%—
τ²-bench Airline83%—
τ²-bench Banking32.2%—
τ²-bench Retail81.6%—
τ²-bench Telecom89.7%—
DeepResearch Bench41.1%—
LMArena Search1207—
METR Time Horizons75.3%—
Vending-Bench 23,591—

Reasoning GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 50.2 (#35), Inkling-Small: 38.6 (#63)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
ARC-AGI-252.9%40.1%
ARC-AGI-186.2%84%
Chess Puzzles49%18%
LMArena Hard Prompts14451423
Mystery Game Puzzles23%6%
Epoch Capabilities Index153.45150.15
SimpleBench45.8%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark73.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)83.6%—
CritPt—8.3%
EnigmaEval10.4%—
EBR-Bench23%—
DTBench90.9%—
LMCA43.9%—
ForecastBench60.1—

Math GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 60.0 (#38), Inkling-Small: 45.1 (#77)

Knowledge GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 59.3 (#32), Inkling-Small: 48.2 (#77)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
GPQA Diamond91.4%88.5%
SimpleQA Verified37.1%19.1%
LMArena Expert14451442
Humanity's Last Exam27.8%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate8.4%—

Multimodal GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 51.3 (#7), Inkling-Small: 39.1 (#62)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
LMArena Vision12681235
VPCT84%—
Furniture Assembly38.3%—
LMArena Document1405—

Multilingual GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 53.4 (#67), Inkling-Small: 51.7 (#104)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
LMArena Non-English14251402
LMArena Chinese14601465
LMArena French14551436
LMArena German14481405
LMArena Japanese14201405
LMArena Korean13921363
LMArena Russian14401391
LMArena Spanish14331428

Instruction Following Too close to call

GPT-5.2: 74.7 (#89), Inkling-Small: 73.8 (#114)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
LMArena Instruction Following14171399

Long Context GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 44.0 (#78), Inkling-Small: 42.7 (#118)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
LMArena Longer Query14281401
CL-bench18.2%—

Writing & Preference GPT-5.2 leads

GPT-5.2: 66.8 (#32), Inkling-Small: 59.6 (#107)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-5.2Inkling-Small
LMArena Text14391414
LMArena Creative Writing14011331
EQ-Bench Creative Writing17031491
LMArena Multi-Turn14581418

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.2 better than Inkling-Small?

GPT-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 46.5 on the Noometry Index. Inkling-Small costs 7.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.2 or Inkling-Small?

Inkling-Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.45 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; GPT-5.2 lists at $1.75 and $14.

Is GPT-5.2 or Inkling-Small better for coding?

GPT-5.2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.6 versus 43.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Inkling-Small does, with 524K tokens against 400K.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.2 and Inkling-Small share?

31 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.2 has 67 scored results on Noometry and Inkling-Small has 33.

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