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Inkling vs Seed 2.1 Turbo

Seed 2.1 Turbo leads the LLM Stats Score 42.5 to 37.1.

Thinking Machines Lab · ByteDance · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Seed 2.1 Turbo leads the overall LLM Stats Score 42.5 to 37.1, ranking #61 overall.

In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Seed 2.1 Turbo wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Inkling

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Seed 2.1 Turbo

  • overall performance matters — it scores 42.5 and ranks #61 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 4 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Inkling
Thinking Machines Lab
Seed 2.1 Turbo
ByteDance
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
37.1
#86
42.5
#61
Reasoning
36.8
#90
44.2
#46
Coding
26.0
#83
29.4
#67
Agents
19.9
#82
28.1
#59
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 4
4 of 4
Input price
$0.95 / M
— / M
Output price
$4.05 / M
— / M
Context window
524,288
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

4 shared
Index
Inkling
Seed 2.1 Turbo
Math
28.4#99
39.4#19
Vision
15.6#107
30.4#39
Tool use
16.6#95
19.3#73
Multimodal
18.8#91
33.0#21
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

16 reported for Inkling · 90 for Seed 2.1 Turbo

4 shared

Inkling outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Seed 2.1 Turbo is better at 4 benchmarks (CharXiv-R, MCP Atlas, MMMU-Pro, Terminal-Bench 2.1).

Seed 2.1 Turbo significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Inkling specifies input context (524,288 tokens). Only Inkling specifies output context (524,288 tokens).

Thinking Machines Lab
Inkling
Input524,288 tokens
Output524,288 tokens
ByteDance
Seed 2.1 Turbo
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Inkling and Seed 2.1 Turbo support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Inkling

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Seed 2.1 Turbo

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Inkling is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Seed 2.1 Turbo uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Inkling

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Seed 2.1 Turbo

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Inkling was released on 2026-07-21, while Seed 2.1 Turbo was released on 2026-06-24.

Inkling is 1 month newer than Seed 2.1 Turbo.

Inkling

Jul 21, 2026

3 months ago

3w newer
Seed 2.1 Turbo

Jun 24, 2026

4 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Inkling and Seed 2.1 Turbo side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Inkling
✓ Preferred
Seed 2.1 Turbo
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Inkling vs Seed 2.1 Turbo.

Which is better, Inkling or Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Seed 2.1 Turbo leads the LLM Stats Score 42.5 to 37.1. Inkling is made by Thinking Machines Lab and Seed 2.1 Turbo is made by ByteDance. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Inkling compare to Seed 2.1 Turbo in benchmarks?

Inkling scores AIME 2026: 97.1%, VoiceBench Avg: 91.4%, Global-MMLU-Lite: 88.7%, IFBench: 79.8%, CharXiv-R: 78.1%. Seed 2.1 Turbo scores CharXiv-D: 94.6%, MathVision: 92.7%, MathVista: 90.5%, MathVerse: 89.2%, Video-MME: 89.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Inkling and Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Inkling supports 524K tokens and Seed 2.1 Turbo supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Inkling and Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (37.1 vs 42.5), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Inkling and Seed 2.1 Turbo?

Inkling is developed by Thinking Machines Lab and Seed 2.1 Turbo is developed by ByteDance.

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