Model comparison

gpt-oss-120b vs Inkling

Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 36.3 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-120b costs 37× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 30 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

36.3

Rank #217 Confirmed

Inkling Thinking Machines Lab

44.1

Rank #80 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 30 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-120b scores higher in 1 category and Inkling in 8 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where gpt-oss-120b leads 52.5 to 31.3.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is APEX-Agents: 4.4% for gpt-oss-120b and 33.8% for Inkling.
  • gpt-oss-120b is cheaper at $0.037 / $0.17 per million input/output tokens, against $1.87 / $4.68 for Inkling.
  • gpt-oss-120b accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 66K.

Side by side

gpt-oss-120b and Inkling specifications
gpt-oss-120bInkling
ProviderOpenAIThinking Machines Lab
Noometry Index36.344.1
Released2025-08-052026-07-15
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K66K
Max output41K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.037$1.87
Output $ / M tokens$0.17$4.68
Results tracked4841

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Category by category

Coding Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 33.5 (#256), Inkling: 34.5 (#234)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
SciCode36%47%
WeirdML48.2%32.3%
LMArena Coding13801464
ALE-Bench575.62946
FrontierCode—14%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)26%—
Aider Polyglot41.8%—
LMArena WebDev—1413
FrontierSWE—4.1%
AlgoTune1.41—

Agentic & Tool Use Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 12.2 (#153), Inkling: 29.6 (#85)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
APEX-Agents4.4%33.8%
Terminal-Bench18.7%—
τ²-bench Banking—25%
METR Time Horizons56.6%—
Vending-Bench 2-21.53—

Reasoning Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 20.0 (#245), Inkling: 40.4 (#56)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
SimpleBench22.1%50%
CritPt1.1%5.4%
Chess Puzzles20%21%
LMArena Hard Prompts13641451
DTBench76.3%87.5%
LMCA22.1%37.6%
Epoch Capabilities Index139.93148.54
ARC-AGI-2—36.5%
Kagi LLM Benchmark58.6%—
ARC-AGI-1—79.5%
Mystery Game Puzzles2%—
Surface Evolver Bench25%—

Math gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 52.5 (#50), Inkling: 31.3 (#225)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%88.9%
LMArena Math13891479
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—33.3%
FrontierMath Tier 4—4.9%
ProofBench—0%
Omni-MATH68.8%—

Knowledge Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 42.4 (#96), Inkling: 55.1 (#49)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
GPQA Diamond75.8%88.3%
LMArena Expert13561465
SimpleQA Verified—40.3%
MMLU-Pro79.5%—
Confabulations15.7%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate14.2%—
GPQA (HELM)68.4%—

Multilingual Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 48.0 (#147), Inkling: 54.0 (#52)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
LMArena Non-English13511434
LMArena Chinese13851490
LMArena French13691458
LMArena German13531446
LMArena Japanese13311429
LMArena Korean12821404
LMArena Russian13431429
LMArena Spanish13891448

Instruction Following Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 69.3 (#173), Inkling: 75.1 (#71)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
LMArena Instruction Following13181426
IFEval83.6%—

Long Context Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 31.4 (#278), Inkling: 43.8 (#86)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
LMArena Longer Query13191434
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference Inkling leads

gpt-oss-120b: 46.5 (#217), Inkling: 65.2 (#51)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bInkling
LMArena Text13651441
LMArena Creative Writing12751387
EQ-Bench Creative Writing9611611
LMArena Multi-Turn13401436
Short-Story Creative Writing77.1%—
WildBench84.5%—
EQ-Bench 4—1226

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b better than Inkling?

Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 36.3 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-120b costs 37× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-120b or Inkling?

gpt-oss-120b is cheaper. It lists at $0.037 per million input tokens and $0.17 per million output tokens; Inkling lists at $1.87 and $4.68.

Is gpt-oss-120b or Inkling better for coding?

Inkling scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.5 versus 33.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

gpt-oss-120b does, with 131K tokens against 66K.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-120b and Inkling share?

30 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-120b has 48 scored results on Noometry and Inkling has 41.

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