Compare / Inkling Small vs GLM 5.2

Inkling Small vs GLM 5.2

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 21 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Inkling Small
Thinkingmachines · profile
GLM 5.2
Z.ai · profile
Results compared
21
Shared sources
3

Inkling Small or GLM 5.2? The short answer

  • Inkling Small is cheaper: $0.64 against $2.15 per million tokens, 3.4 times less.
  • GLM 5.2 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 33.7 against 25.7.
  • On our business benchmarks, GLM 5.2 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

At a glance

Inkling SmallGLM 5.2
Price per million tokens$0.45 in · $1.20 out$1.40 in · $4.40 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.64$2.15
Cheapest host, blended–$0.87 (DeepInfra, FP4)
Intelligence Index25.733.7
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second173–
Context window524,288 tokens1,048,576 tokens
WeightsOpenOpen
Developer based inthe USChina

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseInkling SmallGLM 5.2
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 68 of 161 38 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 58 of 195 42 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 100 of 187 26 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 126 of 153 68 of 153
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) 4 of 21 not measured

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricInkling SmallGLM 5.2
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedConfirmed task successIPS effect estimate -0.210.04
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedPraise over complaintIPS effect estimate -0.210.10
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedSteerabilityIPS effect estimate -0.120.04
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedTool groundingIPS effect estimate -0.000.00
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4251,463
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4081,463
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3131,455
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4451,500
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,3931,470
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4051,476
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,3441,459
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score 52.968.8
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 25.733.7
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 89.5%89.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 33.3%41.1%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 75.7%78.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedSciCode% of problems 49.7%51.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks 55.1%77.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks 1.0%1.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ-bench banking% of tasks 18.8%34.6%
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI)reportedCorrect answers% of questions 19.1%34.2%

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is Inkling Small better than GLM 5.2?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, GLM 5.2 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Which is cheaper, Inkling Small or GLM 5.2?

Inkling Small costs $0.64 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $2.15 for GLM 5.2.

Run Inkling Small and GLM 5.2 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.