Ember-1 vs Inkling-Small
Ember-1 leads the LLM Stats Score 43.1 to 38.1. Inkling-Small is 11.4x cheaper per token.
Fireworks AI · Thinking Machines Lab · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Ember-1 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 43.1 to 38.1, ranking #51 overall.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Ember-1 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Inkling-Small is roughly 11.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Ember-1 also accepts a larger context window (1,040,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Ember-1
- overall performance matters — it scores 43.1 and ranks #51 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes coding and agents — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,040,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026
Choose Inkling-Small
- cost matters — it's about 11.4x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for Ember-1 · 24 for Inkling-Small
Ember-1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.1), while Inkling-Small is better at 0 benchmarks.
Ember-1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Ember-1 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Inkling-Small ($0.30/1M tokens).
For output processing, Ember-1 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 12.5x more expensive than Inkling-Small ($1.20/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Ember-1 is more expensive than Inkling-Small.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Ember-1 has 2504.0B more parameters than Inkling-Small, making it 907.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Ember-1 accepts 1,040,000 input tokens compared to Inkling-Small's 256,000 tokens. Only Inkling-Small specifies output context (256,000 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Inkling-Small supports multimodal inputs, whereas Ember-1 does not.
Inkling-Small can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Ember-1
Inkling-Small
License
Usage and distribution terms
Ember-1 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Inkling-Small uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Ember-1 was released on 2026-09-23, while Inkling-Small was released on 2026-07-30.
Ember-1 is 2 months newer than Inkling-Small.
Sep 23, 2026
2 weeks ago
1mo newerJul 30, 2026
2 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Ember-1 is available from Fireworks. Inkling-Small is available from Thinking Machines Lab, DeepInfra.
Ember-1
Inkling-Small
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Ember-1 and Inkling-Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Ember-1 vs Inkling-Small.