Claude Haiku 5.5 Max vs Inkling 2 Small compared

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 36.5 to 30.6. Compare price, speed, latency and a clear verdict.

Metric	Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)	Inkling 2 Small
Intelligence Index	36.5	30.6
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$0.10	$0.30
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$0.50	$1.00
Output speed (tokens/s)	233	139
Time to first token	4.6 min	2.2s
Release date	2026-10-07	2026-11-05

Metric

Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max)

Inkling 2 Small

Intelligence Index

36.5

30.6

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$0.10

$0.30

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$0.50

$1.00

Output speed (tokens/s)

233

139

Time to first token

4.6 min

2.2s

Release date

2026-10-07

2026-11-05

Choosing between Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) and Inkling 2 Small also means choosing between Anthropic and Thinking Machines. Inkling 2 Small starts answering far sooner, with a time to first token of 2.2 seconds compared with 4.6 minutes for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max. This page is written automatically from catalogue numbers only: benchmark scores, list prices and measured speed.

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is the faster writer

Once a response is under way, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max produces roughly 233 tokens per second against 139 tokens per second for Inkling 2 Small. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is ahead by 68% on throughput. Time to first token is 4.6 minutes for Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and 2.2 seconds for Inkling 2 Small. The faster writer, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max, gives away too much at the start to win on time: counting the first-token wait, Inkling 2 Small finishes first for any reply shorter than about 95,000 tokens. Waits that long are felt on every chat-style request, though they matter less for batch jobs.

Put together, a 1,000-token answer would take about 4.7 minutes from Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and 9.4 seconds from Inkling 2 Small, counting the first-token wait.

Release timing

Inkling 2 Small arrived on November 5, 2026, 29 days after Claude Haiku 5.5 Max (October 7, 2026). That is close enough to count them as the same generation.

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max leads on the intelligence index

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max comes out ahead on the intelligence index, 36.5 to 30.6. That is a clear margin for an index that averages many evaluations. Put another way, Inkling 2 Small would need 19% more on this index to draw level.

Among 109 active scored models, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max sits 37th and Inkling 2 Small 52nd.

Specialist coding and math indexes are missing for both, so treat the overall score as the only capability signal here.

What they cost

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max lists $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Inkling 2 Small lists $0.30 and $1.00. Inkling 2 Small costs twice as much per output token.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $0.20 on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and $0.50 on Inkling 2 Small. A bigger example, a support assistant answering 10,000 conversations of 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each, costs $4.50 on Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and $11.00 on Inkling 2 Small: a gap of $6.50.

Score per dollar

Per point of intelligence index, Claude Haiku 5.5 Max costs $0.0055 of blended price per million tokens and Inkling 2 Small $0.016. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max scores higher and costs less per point, so on price per point there is nothing to trade off.

FAQ

Is Claude Haiku 5.5 Max better than Inkling 2 Small?

Neither wins everywhere: Claude Haiku 5.5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 36.5 to 30.6; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is 58% cheaper on blended price; Claude Haiku 5.5 Max streams output 1.7 times as fast; and Inkling 2 Small reaches its first token sooner.

Is Inkling 2 Small cheaper than Claude Haiku 5.5 Max?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max lists $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Inkling 2 Small lists $0.30 and $1.00. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $0.20 against $0.50.

Does Claude Haiku 5.5 Max respond faster than Inkling 2 Small?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max generates output faster, at 233 tokens per second against 139 tokens per second. Inkling 2 Small reaches its first token sooner (2.2 seconds against 4.6 minutes). Counting the first-token wait, Inkling 2 Small finishes first for any reply shorter than about 95,000 tokens.

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

Are Claude Haiku 5.5 Max and Inkling 2 Small from the same company?

Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is made by Anthropic and Inkling 2 Small by Thinking Machines. Claude Haiku 5.5 Max was released on October 7, 2026 and Inkling 2 Small on November 5, 2026.

Final whistle

Bottom line: Inkling 2 Small has more going for it here, but Claude Haiku 5.5 Max is not without an argument. Pick Inkling 2 Small if users are waiting on the first word and replies need to finish sooner at typical lengths. Pick Claude Haiku 5.5 Max if you need the higher overall score (36.5 against 30.6) and cost matters ($0.50 against $1.00 per million output tokens).

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) and Inkling 2 Small pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.